Marauders Year 1
by Pixie97
Summary: Pretty much the title. This is the story of four close friends' first year at Hogwarts. Read about all their adventures, pranks, detentions, and more! Please read and review!
1. Remus and Peter

**This is the story of the Marauders, aka four boys as close as brothers, from years 1 through 7. If you ever have any ideas or pranks that you want to be in this story, tell me in a review and I will most likely use it! I'm not one for long author's notes so here you go!  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own anything. It all belongs to the brilliant J.K. Rowling**

Lupin Household- September 1st

Remus looked back at his room, then down at the trunk beside him. 'This is it,' he thought. 'I'm actually leaving and going to _school_!' He remembered just two months before, when going to school was a hopeless fantasy. Until, the letter came, that is.

-Flashback- June 12th

Remus sat at the breakfast table with his two parents, Laurie and Henry. Laurie was a Muggle that his father, a pureblood, had met once when using the British Underground instead of Apparating or Flooing to work at the Ministry.

The breakfast table was silent, a tense atmosphere surrounding it. The day before, Remus had gotten a rejection letter from Durmstrang Institute for Magical Learning. Although he knew it was coming, Remus was tremendously upset. His emotions got the best of him and displayed quite the show of accidental magic by shattering all of the glass in their house. He had already been rejected form Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. He only had to be rejected from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he'd officially have no chance to become a real wizard.

The sound of an owl hooting broke the silence and shortly after, one flew through the kitchen window and dropped a letter on Remus' plate before settling next to him. Turning it over, he spotted the Hogwarts seal. 'Another rejection! What a _wonderfu_l way to start the day!' He thought bitterly. Without a word to his parents, he got up, threw the letter in the fire, shooed the owl out the window, and sat back down to finish eating.

Both of his parents had a mixture of surprise and sympathy on their face. They knew how upset he was and wished, not for the first time, that there was a cure for lycanthropy. "Son," Henry started, "Maybe you should've-," He was cut off.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence with 'read it'! I already know what it says!" Remus snapped.

Everyday for the following week and owl came with a Hogwarts letter. Everyday Remus burned the unopened letter and shooed the owl away. Everyday Henry and Laurie got more and more curious as to why they kept coming. And every day, Remus got madder.

On the eighth day, three owls flew in and started poking him with their beaks until he took their letters. "I don't want your bloody letters! I don't want you bloody owls in my house! And I don't _ever want to hear from Hogwarts again! SO LEAVE!" _Remus screamed.

"Really? I was under the impression you would _want_ to go to a magical school considering the fact you applied to all three schools on the continent. "A soft voice came from behind him.

Remus spun around to see an old wizard with gray-white hair and a long beard smiling at him. He wore long, midnight blue robes and past his half moon spectacles you could see a twinkly in his eyes.

Laurie looked very surprised to see an old man in her kitchen. Henry, who had been sipping pumpkin juice, started to choke on it in surprise. After a short coughing fir, he managed to choke out, "Pr-Professor Du-Dumbledore."

Professor Dumbledore smiled at Henry. "Ah, Mr. Lupin! It's been a while, hasn't it? And this must be his lovely wife. I would love to stay and chat, but I am here to speak with young Mr. Lupin. Would you please excuse us?"

"Of course!" Laurie exclaimed and she and Henry left Remus and Dumbledore together in the kitchen.

Remus picked at his breakfast, completely ignoring the old wizard standing on the other side of the table.

"Why have you been ignoring your Hogwarts letter?" Dumbledore asked quietly, sitting in the chair across from Remus.

"What's the point of reading another rejection letter? Why should I do that to myself? Yet you seem pretty adamant on making me!" Remus yelled the last part.

"Rejection letter? Why would we reject a young wizard like yourself?"

"You do know about my disease- don't you?" Remus asked.

"Are you speaking of your lycanthropy? I don't see how your condition affects your schooling. Dumbledore replied calmly.

"I'M DANGEROUS!" Remus screamed. He thought professors were supposed to be smart.

"Why don't you read your letter? Then we can finish this conversation." Dumbledore responded, pulling to another letter and handed it to Remus.

"Fine," Remus muttered, opening it. He read:

Dear Mr. Lupin,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31st. An administrator will visit you on June 20th to discuss precautionaries regarding your condition if you choose to be or are considering attending.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

"Wait-you _actually_ want me at your school?" Remus whispered after a moment.

"Yes. We hear you have a bright young mind. Well, actually I just assume so since your father was a Ravenclaw. Neverless, all witches and wizards are accepted first year, regardless of brains. Mind you we do get a few dense ones ever year!" Dumbledore chuckled.

"Now, In Hogsmeade, there is an old abandoned housed, called the Shrieking Shack. No one ever gets close to it because they believe it is haunted. Neverless, wards will be put up. A secret tunnel leads into it from beneath a rock on the Hogwarts grounds. We have replaced the rock with a Whomping Willow. I trust you know what that is?" At Remus' nod, he continued, "Well, it will keep people from entering. On full moons, Madame Promfrey will escort you to the Willow, freeze the tree by prodding the knot. In the middle, and leave you in the shack. The door will have spells on it so it can only be opened by the outside. The windows will be impenetrable. The following morning she will take you to the hospital wing and mend your injuries to the best of her ability. Does that sound good to you?"

For a moment, Remus was speechless, and then he managed out, "Good? Brilliant! I accept! This is a dream! I can never thank you enough!" Being locked up in the Shrieking Shack was practically the same thing he did at home. And now he wouldn't have to go to St. Mungo's every month!

"All of the teachers will be aware of your condition, but the students will not. Hogwarts is a rumor mill. Don't tell anyone you cannot trust with your life!" Dumbledore warned. "Also, you will need to control that temper of yours. But, congratulations on your acceptance! I must go visit a Muggle born family now but I look forward to seeing you September 1st! Henry? Laurie? Come in here please!" He called.

Remus' parents walked in, Henry beaming, Laurie with tear filled eyes. "We were eavesdropping," Henry confessed "But we are forever grateful to you sir! Thank you so much!"

-End Flashback-

For the last month and a half, Remus had been controlling his temper, reading his school books, and rebuilding his relationship with his parents. The June, July, and August full moons were the best he'd ever had since he was in such good spirits. His life had been filled with hope.

And now it was full of nervousness. Apprehension. Anxiety. All of those fit. He knew he couldn't get close to anyone at school, but he couldn't wait to be with other kids his age. He also knew he had to be careful to make sure no one fond out. However, even with all his nerves, he was excited. HE WAS GOING TO HOGWARTS AFTER ALL!

With one last glance at his room, aka his refuge of the past five years-since The Night, he turned and lugged his trunk down the stairs.

"Ready Rem?" Henry asked. He and Laurie waited next to the fireplace. "It's your big day!" He exclaimed, taking Remus' trunk from him.

"Smile!" Laurie exclaimed, snapping pictures on her Muggle camera.

"Okay, Remus. You and Laurie are going to floo to Platform 9 ¾. I'm going to apparate since I have your trunk."

With an "Okay," Remus stepped in the fireplace, threw down the ash, and cried, "Platform 9 ¾!" before being effulged in green flames. Coughing, Remus stumbled out of the grate, covered in soot, closely followed by Laurie.

"Great! You both got here okay!" Henry's voice came from behind them.

"Oh! I'm going to miss you so much! Use a school owl to write to us every day! I miss you already! Oh- good luck at your new school! Stay out of trouble! Do your work and study hard! You're going to do great! Good luck near the full moon!" Laurie gushed, brushing soot ff Remus.

"You'll do great. I'm proud of you Remus!" Henry said kindly.

Taking a deep breath, Remus nodded. "Thanks. I'll miss you both." He glanced at the clock- 10:50. "I better go get a seat. Love you both!"

"I love you too!" Laurie replied, giving him a big hug before disappearing into the fireplace.

"I'll send you loads of chocolate after all the full moons!" Henry promised, before apparating away.

Remus took a moment to really take in the scene around him. People were bustling all around, hugging, and saying their farewells. Witches and wizards were pooping in and out of thin air, or entering though a wall. And, out of it all, stood a gleaming, scarlet train.

He grabbed his trunk and stepped onto the train. He walked the length of it, nearly to the end, until he found an empty compartment. Settling in, he looked out the window at the crowd. A boy was yelling at his parents, before storming away. A girl with red hair was crying as she talked to a bony, dark haired girl, who didn't seem to enjoy being there. A short, plump boy stood awkwardly with his father. Another boy beamed next to his parents as they entered through the wall.

. 

Peter's House

"Are you ready to go? If you're late, I will not hesitate to make you walk the tracks to Hogwarts! It'd be a good lesson for you!" Peter's father, Asmita, thundered from below.

Peter glanced at the clock, 10:30- he _did _need to get be going! He shoved his last things in his trunk, snapped I shut, and grabbed his toad, Lynall's, cage. He sure hoped he hadn't forgotten something!

"I'm ready! I'm ready!" Peter called as he bounded down the stairs to see his father waiting by the fireplace.

"About time! Now listen, and listen hard. I went to Durmstrang, and I feel to get some toughness into you, that you should too. However, it was your mother's wish for you to go to Hogwarts like she did. I expect you to do well there. Remember, you have seven years of schooling. At anytime I can transfer you." Asmita said. "Understand?"

"Yes, yes sir!" Peter squeaked.

"You sound like a house elf! At school you need to stand up for yourself, and you will succeed, not only in school, but life. No one there is better that you-yet. Keep it that way."

Peter nodded. 'Stand up for myself. Stand up for myself,' he repeated in his mind. He didn't want people picking on him or looking down on him. He'd popular one day. Powerful.

"I won't let you down!" Peter vowed. He knew he'd try his best to keep that promise. HE wanted his dad to be proud of him like he used to be.

When Peter was seven, a tutor cam to teach him basic reading and writing skills. Peter did well, and was a fast learner. When he turned eight, however, his mother, Marcelle, fell ill. She had been a kind woman that was gentle and understanding to everything and everyone. That atmosphere helped Peter. It also softened Asmita's harsh personality. Marcelle had gotten Spattergroit from a coworker at the Ministry. The Pettigrew's sacrificed so much to help her, but she never recovered. Five months in the hospital only led to her death. They couldn't afford the tutor anymore, so Asmita attempted to teach Peter. However, he wasn't a patient teacher and Peter often had trouble learning due to the stress. Since then, Peter had heard how weak and squib like he was nearly every day of the year. Peter figured that it could be worse (his dad could beat him), so he just kept silent and tried to do better.

"I hope you won't. Now grab my arm, we will be apparating to Platform 9 ¾." Peter did so.

As soon as Peter arrived, he knew he never wanted to apparate again. He felt sick and dizzy, but all was forgotten when he saw the gleaming Hogwarts Express.

"Wow! Its- its-" Peter was cut off.

"Breathtaking! I mean," Asmita recovered, "Where's your trunk boy? Did you honestly forget it? Grab my arm!" Peter reluctantly did so and was sucked through space back to his house.

Two extra trips through Hell later, Peter stood awkwardly next to his father next to the train.

"Um, uh, bye Dad. I love you." Peter stammered.

"Goodbye, Peter. Remember what I told you!" Peter nodded and with a loud *pop*, Asmita vanished.

Peter entered the last car in the train and sat down in the first empty compartment he saw. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter! The next one is about James and Sirius. It's already written (along with the third and part of fourth chapters) so I will get it up this week! Trust me, more reviews= faster update.**

**-Pixie97**

**Review Question: If you were a witch/ wizard, would you rather go to Hogwarts, Durmstrang, or Beauxbatons and why?**


	2. Sirius and James

**Thank you sooooo much to DarthAbby for reviewing! And to everyone who favorited, put on alert, or even just read the first chapter! (It'd be great if you reviewed next time)So, as promised, here is Chapter 2! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

Sirius' House

'I'm finally getting out of this hell hole!' was the first thing Sirius though when he woke up that morning. It was 8:00 AM on September 1st, which meant he had just three more hours until he was _free. _Free of his mother. Free of his father. Free of Kreacher. Free of 'The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.'

He got out of bed and took a shower, wasting as much time as possible. He had barely gotten his robes on when Kreacher popped into the room.

"Master Sirius, you are wanted at the breakfast table immediately, sir!" Kreacher squeaked before apparating away.

'Great,' thought Sirius, 'time for a family breakfast.' This was what he had been trying to delay. He looked in the mirror, decided he looked good, and descended the stairs. In the kitchen he saw his father, Orion, his mother, Walburga, his younger brother, Regulus and Uncle Alphard sitting around the table. He quietly took a place at the end of the table and helped himself to pumpkin juice and a roll, completely ignoring the four pairs of eyes that were on him.

"Where have you been?" Walburga screeched after a moment.

Sirius shrugged, leaning back so that the chair was on two legs. In his mind he was thinking about how his mother's voice sounded very similar to a banshee's. Of course, as much as he would like to voice this, he did value his life.

"Answer your mother boy!" Orion snapped harshly.

"Now, now. I'm sure he's so excited about starting school that he was simply making sure he was all packed." Uncle Alphard intervened. Sirius had always like Uncle Al. He was more reasonable and laid back than everyone else in the Black Family. Uncle Alphard also had a good sense of humor, therefore he liked Sirius and would always defend them.

"Puh-lease!" Regulus muttered. Sirius shot an annoyed look at his younger brother. They used to be very close, back-as Sirius put it- when Regulus had 'a sense of adventure.' About two years ago, Regulus developed a need to please their parents, and stopped joining Sirius' mission to piss them off as much as possible. Since then, their relationship had dwindled steadily, so now they were still brothers, but not nearly as close.

Walburga cleared her throat. "Well, since Alphard says that you're so excited about Hogwarts, we can start the conversation there. You are to uphold The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black's honor while you are there. We have provided you with the best tutor available-"

"Not that he appreciated it," Orion muttered.

"And _attempted_ to teach you manners. You may not full respect pureblood nobility yet-"

"Another sign that there is something wrong with him," Orion said under his breath.

"But you will soon see how disgusting and filthy mudbloods are!" Walburga ranted, ignoring her husband's interruptions.

"I don't ever understand why they're allowed in!" Regulus interjected.

"I know why. It's because old Dumbledore is headmaster. Who knows what he'll let in next! A werewolf?" Walburga cackled.

Sirius was all too familiar with this conversation. It seemed to be the topic of the year.

"Anyway, your father and I expect you to be perfect. One year you will be a prefect like your cousins are now. Why, I believe Andromeda is Head Girl this year!"

'Translation,' thought Sirius, 'Don't let your cousins show you up. It'll make me look bad.'

"Well," Sirius said getting up. "I'm done. Excuse me. I will be down to floo to the platform at 10:45."

"You were not dismissed, young man!" Orion ordered.

"I believe," Sirius started casually, "that when I said 'excuse me,' I dismissed myself."

Orion got up and smacked Sirius cheek, hard. "That cheek will not be tolerated in this household or in Slytherin!"

Sirius laughed darkly in his mind. His cheek, as in the way he responded, had caused Orion to hit his real cheek. He would have voiced this, too, but his eyes were stinging from the impact and he knew that it was going to bruise- so he didn't want to be hit again.

"Orion!" Walburga reprimanded. "I thought we agreed not to hit or cane him! He can't go to school with bruises! It'll look like we beat him!" She sighed. "Kreacher! Fetch Sirius some bruise salve!"

"Yes, madam!" bowed Kreacher, before exiting.

Sirius muttered under his breath. 'It'll look like we beat him?' THEY DO! Whenever he does something fun or remotely interesting, he gets punished. He glanced over at Uncle Alphard to see what he made of this turn of events. Alphard had a calm look on his face, as if he was used to beatings and arguments about Black behavior. He caught Sirius' eye and mouthed, "Are you alright?" Sirius nodded.

"Oh don't give me that look! We only hit you when you deserve it! If you acted like a proper Black, like Regulus, it wouldn't happen!" Scolded Walburga, "Besides, here comes Kreacher with the salve now! Go up to your room and be back here at 10:30-sharp!"

"Fine," Sirius snapped, slamming the kitchen door behind him. He climbed the stairs to his room and went to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror he could see purple bruises already forming on his left cheek. He gently dabbed the salve on them. He had only used it once before- when he got hit two Christmas' ago for being 'ungrateful.'

"Mother is right, you know," came a voice from behind Sirius. "You wouldn't be punished if you didn't try so hard to get on their nerves."

"I don't want a little philosophy lesson from you, Regulus!" Sirius snapped.

"Okay, okay!" Regulus raised his hands in surrender. "I didn't come to give you one. I just wanted to help you pack before you're off!" They both got on their knees and piled Sirius' robes, clothes, and schoolbooks into his trunk. "I'm going to miss you Sirius." Regulus said softly, breaking the silence after a while.

"I'll miss you too Reggie." Sirius replied, reverting back to Regulus' childhood nickname.

"Next year, next year I'll be a better brother. We'll both be at Hogwarts together! We can hang out in our common room, eat our meals together, and in a few years we can both be on the Quidditch team!" Regulus promised, excitedly.

Sirius gave a half smile and then sighed. "In Slytherin."

"Of course in Slytherin! Come on Sirius! That's where the best wizards in history have been! That's where we belong!" Regulus pleaded for his older brother to understand. "I want us to rebuild our relationship! We used to be so close! I've tried to make you see sense and stay out of trouble from our parents, but next year none of that will matter! They won't be there between us!"

Sirius packed in silence for a moment. "Yeah, you're right." He said finally. He started to shove all of his pranking supplies into the left over space in the trunk.

"I got you a goodbye present. Here," Regulus pulled a box out of his robes.

"A jumbo pack of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No-Heat Fireworks and a large bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans!" Sirius said excitedly. "My favorites! Thanks!"

"No problem. I'm going to go now. Remember, you need to be downstairs in half an hour."

-Thirty Minutes Later-

Sirius entered the front hallway at exactly 10:30.

"Well, I'm glad to see you have learned how to be on time!" Walburga said when Sirius walked in. "Kreacher, read him off the supplies he is supposed to have and Sirius, make sure you have them."

Ten minutes later, Sirius had everything he needed and it was time to go.

"Kreacher! Take Sirius, Regulus and the trunk with you. We will be apparating to the platform." Orion commanded before apparating out, shortly followed by Walburga. Kreacher grabbed Sirius, Regulus, and the trunk firmly before popping away.

Sirius figured it was safe to open his eyes, and, when he did, he was instantly awed. A magnificent, scarlet locomotive was pulled into the station. People, some in Muggle clothing, others in wizard robes, bustled around. Owls hooted, cats screeched, and toads hopped about.

"I cannot believe how some witches and wizards disgrace themselves by wearing Muggle clothing! How absolutely repulsive! Oh, look, its Bellatrix! I wonder where her mother is. I think I'll go say hello!" Walburga mused, walking away.

"Alright, Regulus. Say goodbye to your brother. Then you and Kreacher will be going home." Orion ordered, looking around.

"See you Regulus."

"Bye. And remember- next year!" Regulus reminded before taking Kreacher's hand and apparating away.

"Sirius, Bellatrix is a prefect. She and LUcius Malfoy will be patrolling the second to last car. I advise sitting there." Walburga said, walking up. 'Yeah, right,' thought Sirius.

"As a Slytherin, you must remember- purebloods are better. That's easy since our Black motto is Toujours Pur, or always pure. The other houses accept all kinds of filth, so stick to Slytherins." Orion warned.

"What if I don't want to be a Slytherin? Huh? What if I want to be a Hufflepuff? Or a Gryffindor? Or a Ravenclaw?" Sirius blurted, frustrated.

"Sirius Orion Black! Don't you _ever_ speak that way again! I'd disown you if you were a Hufflepuff! And Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are almost as bad! Slytherin is _far above_ all of them!" Walburga raised her voice in fury.

"_I_ don't see what's wrong with being brave! Or loyal! Or even smart! At least you are something! Not just someone else's definition of 'pure'!"

"Watch your mouth! You'll just have to learn the hard way, I guess!" Walburga yelled, grabbing Orion's hand. "We're leaving!" And they disappeared.

"Fine! No one wants you here anyway!" Sirius muttered under his breath and walked onto the train. Not paying much attention to where he was going, he ran into a scrawny, dark haired boy that was about his age.

James' House

James Potter woke up on September first to the delicious scent of chocolate chip pancakes. Light streaked through the curtains in his very large bedroom. He sat up in bed groggily, running a hand through his hair, messing it up even more. His trunk lay open in the middle of the room, clothes and book strewn around it.

He left his room, walked down the long hallway to the grand spiral stair case that led downstairs. He entered the kitchen to see his mother, Claire, making his favorite breakfast: chocolate chip pancakes with strawberry syrup, bacon, biscuits, and pumpkin juice. His father, Christopher, sat at the table reading the Daily Prophet while sipping tea.

"Hey kiddo! Almost 9 AM! I would've thought you'd be up earlier due to all the excitement. I know the night before my first day I didn't sleep!" Christopher greeted a half-asleep James.

"What excitement? What first day? What on earth are you talking about?" James murmured confused, taking the seat across from his father.

Claire started laughing. "James Potter! The boy who remembers everything has forgotten his own very first day of Hogwarts?" Claire faked a gasp of shock.

The eleven year old was suddenly wide awake. "Merlin's Beard! Its September first!" When his parents started to laugh at him he defended himself, "Hey! In my defense, I just woke up!"

"I can tell by your lovely hair. You have quite the bed head! "Claire smiled, setting a huge plate in front of the young boy, who, after a quick "Thank you," immediately started eating.

"How do you know it's a bed head? I can't tell the difference between before and after it's combed!" Christopher joked.

"Hey! It's not my fault!" James shot back.

"It sure isn't mine or your mothers! Look at our hair! You sure he's our kid Claire?" Christopher teased.

It was true. James' hair was thick, dark and messy. Claire's was a shade or two lighter, but thin, and pin straight. Christopher's was sandy blonde, and straight. Of course, at their age, they both had gray streaks in their hair and Christopher was balding.

"Oh- he is! I carried that boy around for nine months! Although, he was pretty light! He's just as scrawny as you Chris!" Claire laughed.

"Hey!" protested both of the males.

After ten pancakes, James got up from the table. "Thanks for breakfast mum! But I got to go finish packing now!"

"Weren't you supposed to finish last night?" Claire asked. After no reply from James, she added, "Not surprised one bit. Mickey will be up for your trunk at 10:25. That gives you 45 minutes to finish packing. Sound good?"

"Sounds great!" James replied, before heading upstairs to take a shower.

He had already paced his school books, and after shoving everything around the trunk or in his dresser into it, he was officially almost packed. All he had left was prank supplies and other magical items like that. The problem was, there was no room left.

"Need help?" A squeaky, female voice asked. James turned to see Mickey, the Potter's house elf, standing in the door way.

"Yeah. I can't fit everything in my trunk! Do you know what time it is?" James said while running a hand through his hair.

"10:10, Master James! Mistress Claire asked me to come see if you were in need of my assistance! If you'd like, I could fold your clothes for you! I think they will fit better that way." Mickey squeaked.

"That'd be great! You really are the best Mickey!" James replied. "I'm going to look around the house to make sure I haven't forgotten anything."

It turned out that James had forgotten a lot of things. His wizard's chess set in the living room. His copy of Quidditch Through the Ages (his favorite book) in the parlor. His exploding snap set in the kitchen. His magical towel that instantly makes you completely dry (also helpful for spills). Plus, he had to find his countless boxes of Filibuster Fireworks, Fanged Frisbees, Dungbombs, Fake wands, etc. James didn't know how Mickey managed to fit it all in his trunk.

"James? Mickey? It's after 10:30! We need to go _now_ if you want to take the train to Hogwarts! Trust me, apparating to Hogsmeade and waiting for the train to arrive at the station is not nearly as fun." Claire called upstairs.

It was already 10:45 when James had everything and was finally ready to go.

"Alrighty then! Just hand me James' trunk, Mickey, please! Thank you! Now, I'll take the trunk and Claire, you take James. We'll be back in thirty minutes Mickey!" Christopher said, taking the trunk.

"Do we _have_ to apparate? It's an awful feeling! What's wrong with just using the floo network?" James whined. He had apparated just once before and the very idea of going again was making him sick.

"If you were down here at 10:30, like I asked, we would be able to. But now the floo network will be much too crowded around Platform 9 ¾, so we will just have to apparate.

"Fine. Is it true you can get onto the Platform through a wall? I wanna go through a wall!" James asked excitedly.

"Yes, it's true. If you want we can apparate to the train station and go in through the wall. Alright Chris? That's the plan. Apparate to King's Cross." Claire decided, grabbing James' hand. James had the sensation of being stretched like a rubber band while spinning uncontrollably until, finally, his feet were on solid ground and he was looking at a train station that was crowded with Muggles.

"Now James, all you have to do is walk straight through that wall, between Platforms 9 and 10. Don't stop and your father and I will follow shortly." Claire directed James when they reached Platforms 9 and 10.

James pushed his trolley through the wall and followed casually, similar to someone pushing a grocery cart down an aisle and the store. When he was through, he was amazed at what he saw. A gleaming, scarlet red train stood out, tall and proud, against hundreds of witches and wizards. People were entering and exiting the train, waving out the windows, or saying goodbye on the Platform. He'd never seen so many wizards in one place.

Awe and nostalgia was shown on the older Potter's faces. "It's been too long since I've been here!" Christopher exclaimed.

"It's brilliant!" James said at the same time.

"Definitely!" Claire agreed, to whom they couldn't tell, but probably both.

"Son, I'm proud of you! Have fun at Hogwarts- I know I did!" Christopher winked.

"You'll be amazing! Oh- Jamesie! I'm going to miss you so so much! Write to me every day! We didn't get you Robin for nothing! I'm going to send you treats every week so you don't forget me! Be safe- and stay out of trouble! Oh, I'm so proud of you! I love you!" Claire gushed. Robin, James' new owl that had a red stripe down its front and red around its eyes (that's why James named it Robin), hooted when his name was mentioned.

"Mum! Mum!" James exclaimed. "I promise to write you! And how could I forget you? Or your cooking?"

Claire smiled. "The kitchens will have a handful providing enough food for you! I don't know how you ate ten pancakes this morning! TEN!"James laughed.

"I'll send you anything you need or have forgotten! I'm going to miss my baby!" Claire threw her arms around James.

"Speaking of food, a growing lad like yourself needs more than three meals a day, so I'm going to give you a little tip. Look for a large bowl of fruit." Christopher winked at James.

"Is that where the kitchens are? Oh- don't worry dad! I'll find it!" James promised.

"I believe you! And I bet you'll find much more at Hogwarts. Have fun."

"Thanks! I better go get a seat! I love you both!" James said, hugging his parents. After they said, 'I love you' back, he hopped onto the train and started pushing thorough the crowded corridor.

**Well, did you like it? If you did, or didn't, please tell me in a review! Reviews really motivate me to write and type faster! Expect an update next Sunday(ish). Possibly sooner, possibly later- your reviews tip the scale! I will try to have two updates a week usually- that sounds pretty good, right? Some authors do one update a month! Please review! **

**The next chapter will be about the train ride! It'll probably be shorter than these past few chapters, but not too short.**

**Review Questions: What do you think of the Hogwarts motto? And what does it mean? What language is it in?**

**Hint: the motto is: ****Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus**

**Btw- Did you know that Hogwarts is a type of lily? Like the flower?**

**-Pixie97**


	3. Of Trains and Boats

**I don't feel like having a long author's note. So- I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I love it if you left a review. Oh- And Happy Father's Day!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Some parts of this chapter are taken pretty much word for word (slightly altered to fit this story) from the books but I had to. **

"Hey! Watch it!" A boy snapped.

"Well, I either had to bump into you or that fat kid, and I decided I didn't want to be sat on in case he gets mad," came the cool reply.

The scowl turned into a grin. "I like you. I'm Sirius Black." He stuck out his hand. "First year."

"James Potter. Same," he replied shaking Sirius' hand.

'Potter? Was that pureblood?' Sirius couldn't remember. Then again, he didn't care about blood status anymore, so he ignored the thoughts his parents drilled into his brain.

"Brilliant! Let's find somewhere to sit." Together they pushed through the crowd, and about the time the train started moving they entered the second to last car and noticed that it was far less crowded.

"Want to sit in here?" James asked, looking inside an empty compartment.

"Merlin, no! My cousin is a _prefect_," Sirius said as if prefect was the most disgusting thing in the world, "and is patrolling this car. What if she comes and _talks_ to me? I'd throw up!"

"Someone doesn't like their cousin!" James laughed as they entered the last car. All of the compartment were full, except the last two. Both of them were occupied by a sleeping boy.

"Which one?" James asked.

"I dunno. We could carry that one," he said pointing to the boy on the left, "into that booth," pointing right, "so they could sleep peacefully and we'd have our own compartment!"

"Sounds like a plan!" James agreed. As they were about to lift the boy, his eyes shot open and with a loud BANG! they were blown backwards. The explosion that had shot them back had been deafening and all three boys now had a ringing in their ears.

"Ow!" James muttered, rubbing his neck where it had hit the door handle. "Was that really necessary?"

"Yes! Now who are you?" the boy shot back, on high alert.

"Oh- relax!" Sirius muttered. "Since you and the kid across the hall are both sleeping, we were just going to put you two together so we wouldn't worry about waking one of you up! Of course you probably woke the kid up just now, considering that I'M DEAF NOW!"

"I dunno about deaf- that seems a little melodramatic. More like hearing-impaired, I'd say." James said casually.

"Ha ha. Well, I would like to finish my nap. I think I'll join that other sleeping boy. I have a feeling you guys won't be too quiet." Remus replied coolly, exiting.

They had just enough time to sit down across from each other when a young girl with flaming red hair came in, crying. She sat next to the window, still crying, not even acknowledging either of the other two occupants.

"Hey," James started slowly, "Are you okay?"

"Yes," was the short reply.

"Want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Can we do anything?"

"Leave me alone."

"Okay!" James raised his hands in defeat and turned back to Sirius.

"So, I'm hungry. When do you think the food trolley will be around?" He asked.

"I don't know. I hope it's soon." Sirius replied. "While we wait, are you up for a game of Gobstones?"

"Yeah! I don't have any marbles. Do you?"

"Yup, hold on," Sirius reached up to his trunk and pulled some out.

"Woah! Is that a solid gold set?"

"Yeah. My Uncle Al gave it to me as a going away present." Sirius answered.

"Cool. Alright let's play!" And the two boys played countless games of Gobstones as the train traveled out of London and through the country side. They barely glanced up when a boy with oily skin and greasy hair entered the compartment and sat down across from the red haired girl.

"I don't want to talk to you," she said in a constricted voice.

"Why not?"

"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."

"So what?"

She threw him a look of deep dislike. "So she's my sister!"

"But we're going!" he said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"

She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she almost smiled.

"You'd better be in Slytherin," said the boy, encouraged that she had brightened a little.

This caught both of the other boys' attention, and they froze mid game.

"Slytherin?" James looked around at the word. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James asked Sirius.

"My whole family has been in Slytherin." He said.

"Blimey!" said James, "and I thought you seemed all right!"

Sirius grinned. "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

James lifted an invisible sword, "Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad."

The greasy boy made a small disparaging noise. James turned on him. "Got a problem with that?"

"No," although his sneer said otherwise, "if you'd rather be brawny than brainy."

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" Interjected Sirius.

James roared with laughter. The girl sat up, rather flushed, and looked from James to Sirius in dislike.

"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."

"Oooooooooo…" James and Sirius imitated her lofty voice. James tried to trip Severus as he passed.

"See ya Snivellus!" Sirius called as the compartment door slammed.

"Snivellus! How'd you come up with that?" James asked, impressed.

"It just came to me. I'm really that brilliant." Sirius replied, airily.

"He's going to be fun to mess with this year. And a great target for pranks! I'm excited!" James said, his eyes lighting up.

"Yeah, but that redhead is going to get in the way. Seems like a total goody goody."

"Hey! I kind of liked her! She's got…spunk!" James defended dreamily.

"Whatever you say, mate!" Sirius shook his head, "But if that Snivellus guy is who she hangs out with, then she's got bad taste!"

Just then a plump witch pushing a trolley full of sweets appeared outside the door.

-Across the hall-

The sound of a door slamming, followed by "See ya Snivellus!" woke the two napping boys across the hall.

"Ahh!" Remus jumped out of his seat, while the other boy sat up groggily.

"Oh, hello. When did you get here? I'm Peter Pettigrew." Peter held out his hand.

"Remus Lupin." Remus replied, shaking his hand.

"Do you know what is going on across the hall?" Peter speculated aloud.

"Not sure. I left that compartment because two boys said they'd be loud. Guess they were telling the truth."

"Oh." Peter's stomach rumbled. "I hope we didn't miss the trolley! I'm starving!"

"Same here! It better have chocolate frogs! They are my favorite." Remus said hungrily.

"Nothing beats licorice wands! Or Cauldron Cakes…"

"Mmmm." Remus moaned, imagining the delicious tasted of food in his empty stomach. "I'm going to check across the hall to see if the trolley has been by."

"Good idea!" squeaked Peter. I'll go with you!"

Together they crossed the hall and opened up the door to find two boys stuffing their faces, surrounded by sweets and wrappers.

"Aw man! The cart already came by!" Peter whined.

The two boys glanced at them. "Not to worry. We took everything off the cart. Dig in- we've got tons!" One of the boys said.

Immediately, Peter sat down and started chomping on a licorice wand. Remus, however, stayed back.

"What's got you?" The other boy asked. "Don't tell me you don't like sweets!" He added in mock horror.

"No, of course I like sweets! I just don't want to take your food." Remus responded, looking hungrily at the pile of Chocolate Frogs on the seat.

"Then what's the problem?" said the first boy, whose mouth was full.

"Well, I don't even know you. So I don't want to take your food!"

"That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!" The second boy laughed. "I'm Sirius Black."

"James Potter. So now that you know us, you can take one of those Chocolate Frogs that your drool is reflecting!"

"Alright." Remus said, not putting up much of a fight. "My name's Remus Lupin."

"And. I." Peter said between bites, "am. Peter. Pettigrew."

"Cool." Then the four boys dug into the heaping piles of candy and chocolate without another word.

"I'm boooored!" complained Sirius when the majority of sweets were gone.

"We could play Gobstones," Remus suggested.

"Nah, Sirius and I already played that. Exploding Snap anyone?" James replied. "We could have a tournament!"

"Sounds good to me!" Remus agreed.

After Sirius and Peter's murmur of consent, the tournament was in full swing. One burnt thumb (Peter's) later, Remus was declared the winner. This made Sirius, who came in second place, very upset.

"He cheated! Lupin cheated! How did you not see it? He totally cheated!" Sirius accused. James tried to calm Sirius down by telling him, "It's just a game!" and, "There could be a rematch another time," but he wouldn't shut up until James yelled, "YOU LOST! Get that? Remus beat you! So stick that in your juice box and suck it!"

"Attention students. The train will be arriving in approximately thirty minutes. Please change into your robes if you have not already done so." The loudspeaker announced.

"Woah! We're nearly there!" James exclaimed.

"I'm glad! I can't wait for the feast, I'm starving!" Sirius whined. The other three boys look disbelieving at him. "What?"

"We just ate an entire trolley of sweets!" Remus said incredulously.

"Not to mention that you ate half of it!" James accused.

"Hey! I'm a growing boy!" Sirius defended.

"Your stomach is growing, I don't know about the rest of you!" James teased.

"Just get dressed!" Sirius changed the subject. Sirius was already in his robes, but the other three weren't. James and Remus started to pull on their robes but Peter had to go across the hall since his trunk was still in there.

"Are you guys nervous?" Peter asked when they were all dressed.

"No!" Chorused James, Sirius, and Remus, which earned an, "Oh," from Peter.

"Why would we be?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah! Think of all the places you can explore! Secret passageways!" James said excitedly.

"Or all of the things to learn!" Remus enthused.

"I'm glad to get away from my insane family." Sirius added.

"I suppose…" Peter mumbled.

"And Quidditch! We get to go to all the matches and next year we can be on the team! How can you not be excited about that?" James' eyes were lighting up like they always did when he talked about his favorite sport.

"Well, I don't know too much about Quidditch. I've never seen or played it." Peter replied quietly.

"Never seen or played Quidditch?" Sirius said voice rising. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" Peter shrank back and whimpered.

"Hey! Leave him alone! Just because he's not into Quidditch like you or James doesn't mean you can bully him!" Remus defended. "Besides, I don't know that much about Quidditch except what I've learned from reading."

Sirius shook his head in disbelief, but calmed down.

"Well," James started, "We'll just have to change that!"

"And how do you plan to do that?" Remus asked, "First years can't play."

"So? We are still allowed to_ fly_! On the weekend Sirius and I can give you Quidditch lessons!" James volunteered.

"Yeah! Then next year we can all either play with or against each other on our House teams!" Sirius enthused.

"What positions do you play?" Remus inquired.

"I'm a chaser. But I'm not a bad seeker either," James answered.

"Beater." Sirius said.

"What's a-," Peter was cut off by the loud speaker.

"We have arrived at Hogsmeade Station. Please exit to the left of the train. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately.

The four boys were able to get off before the crowd since they were at the end of the train. They stood awkwardly on the platform, unsure of where to go, until they heard a voice calling, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Firs' years this way!"

As they walked towards the voice, they discovered it belonged to a very large man.

"Merlin! That's one big man!" Sirius blurted when he saw him.

"He looks nice. I'm going to go say hi!" James declared before practically skipping up to the large man.

"Should we follow him?" Remus asked, watching James' retreating figure.

"What the heck, why not?" Sirius replied, and they followed James.

"Hiya! I'm Potter! James Potter! And you are?" James inquired, all the sugar he ate making him hyper.

"Hullo James. I'm Rubeus Hagrid. But yeh can jus' call me Hagrid." The huge man, Hagrid, responded.

"Wow. That's an awesome name! What do you do at Hogwarts, Hagrid? When do we get to see it? Is the food good? Because I'm hungry!" James spoke very fast.

"I'm the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. And who are you? I'm Hagrid as I was just tell'n Mr. Potter here."Hagrid said as Sirius, Remus, and Peter walked up. "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" He called louder. A cluster of nervous children were migrating towards the very large man.

"I'm Sirius Black, and this is Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew." Sirius introduced.

"Nice ter meet yeh. We've better be goin'." Hagrid said checking his watch. "Alright firs' years! Follow me!" He led them down to the edge of a lake. "Four to a boat! Yeh hear? Four to a boat!"

They took the first boat they saw and sat down with Remus in the front, Peter in the back, and James and Sirius in the middle. Hagrid had his own boat.

When all the students were in boats, Hagrid called, "Everyone in? Alright and FORWARD!" and the boats started moving.

"Did you know that a giant squid lives in here?" a voice drifted to their boat.

"Blimey! A giant squid! I want to see it!" James exclaimed.

"Oh! I know a summoning spell!" Sirius pulled out his wand.

"No, please don't summon a giant squid!" Remus pleaded but it was too late.

"_Acrio giant squid!" _shouted Sirius. Nothing happened at first.

"That's not the spell! You said it wrong, you dolt!" Remus hit Sirius on the head, although he was relieved that Sirius hadn't actually said 'accio' and summoned it.

"What's happening to the water?" Peter asked, peering over the edge. The three others followed suit. The water was bubbling and suddenly the boat started to shake uncontrollably.

"Merlin's beard! What on Earth did you do, Sirius?"Asked James.

No sooner had the words left his mouth that the whole boat flew up in the air before crashing back down at back-breaking speed. The impact made their boat flip over, then the next one, then the next, until every boat flipped over in a domino style, besides Hagrid's. Screams and shouts rang out as eleven year olds fell in. Hagrid directed his boat to help the ones struggling in the water and haul them into their own boat. After a few minutes of chaos, everyone was back in a boat. The expressions on their faces clearly said that they did not appreciate being dumped into the lake.

James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, however, were laughing as they climbed back into their boat.

"Man! That was awesome!" James exclaimed.

"Can we do it again?" Peter asked eagerly.

"That was better than seeing the giant squid!" Remus enthused.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it!" Sirius said giving a bow. "It's a gift!"

"Are yeh all alright?" Hagrid called.

"Yes!" replied most voices.

"Well, then. Take a look! There she is!" Hagrid pointed ahead at the castle.It was perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. A chorus of "Oooooos," rang out.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached a cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

They clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door. Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

A stern looking woman opened the door immediately. Her sharp gaze swept over the first years, before asking Hagrid, "Why are they all wet?"

**Please tell me what you think of this chapter! If you review, I'll give you a virtual cookie!**

**Review Question: If you lived in the wizarding world, what kind of job do you think you would have? (ex. Ministry, Healer, Auror, Teacher, etc)**

**-Pixie97**


	4. Of Hats and Houses

This chapter is dedicated to (and updated early for) DarthAbby, who has reviewed every chapter! For everyone else who has favorited, or put on alert, it'd be really great if you left a review! This isn't my favorite chapter since it's all about the sorting.

Disclaimer: Some of the descriptions and things McGonagall says are taken from Harry Potter. However, the Sorting Hat's song and what it says to each of the boys is my original writing. But it all is owned by the brilliant JK Rowling.

All eyes turned to glare at James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, who looked behind them innocently as if to see who they were looking at. When they looked back at the witch, they tried to keep an innocent façade, but it was too hard to hide the smiles that were tugging at their lips.

"Well?" She asked them imploringly.

"Please-," Sirius started, at the same time as James said,

"Ma'am, We-," while Peter pleaded,

"It wasn't our-," as Remus began,

"We were-,"

"Not all at once! Hagrid," she sighed, "What happened?"

"I believe that one of them," he glanced at Sirius, "tried to summon the giant squid and it went wrong. All of the boats ended up flippin'. It wasn't intentional, Professor McGonagall."

She gave an exasperated sigh. "Since we are already running behind, I will let this slide. Brace yourselves." She warned, whipping out her wand.

The students gave questioning looks to each other. "What does she mean, brace ourselves?" they whispered.

"_Procella Exasresco_!" Suddenly a huge gust of wind blew at the students, so strong that everyone either skidded back or fell down. It seemed to be never ending, but when it finally stopped everyone was dry and very windblown.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," started Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points.

"At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes lingered on everyone's windblown hair or unfastened cloaks, before briskly disappearing through the large doors.

All of the students ran their fingers through their hair and smoothed their robes in order to look presentable. James didn't even bother fixing his hair, knowing it wouldn't look any better if he did.

"We are ready for you. Due to your delay," McGonagall said, reentering the chamber and giving a pointed look at the four boys. "Even the ghosts are in there. Now, form a line, and follow me."

A very uneven line was created by the forty or so kids and they nervously followed Professor McGonagall through a tall pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

The line faltered a bit as the first years stopped briefly to take in the strange and splendid place.

It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, ghosts shone misty silver. The ceiling was pitch black, lit up only by stars since there was a new moon. It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the Heavens.

"Whoa! Look at all the ghosts!" James whispered to Sirius, who nodded, wide-eyed.

Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Everyone in the hall was starting at the hat, and, for a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing:

"A test could not prove,

Or even a fight or a duel,

Where you truly belong,

Because you'd only look like a fool.

You know that old saying (it's not as old as me)

'It's what's inside that matters,'

Well it couldn't be more true,

For this hat full of tatters!

When you put me on,

I look deep inside,

At all of your strengths and weaknesses,

There is nothing you can hide!

If you're brave, daring, and valiant,

You shall be outlined in red and gold,

For only the courageous can be with

The Gryffindors- the proud and bold!

The patient and kind,

Will find themselves in yellow,

So if you're fair and loyal,

Take a spot with the Hufflepuff fellows!

The clever and witty,

Belong in bronze and blue,

You've got to be smart,

To be Ravenclaw through and through!

Only the sly and cunning,

Can get by in silver and green,

If your pureblooded wizard,

Then become a Slytherin- they aren't too mean! 

So where do you think you should be?

Could you sort everyone- skinny or fat?

Don't worry- that's my job,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat!"

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables then became quite still again.

"The hat's not a bad singer!" Sirius commented.

"Yeah! And it's whole lot better than you!" Remus whispered back.

"You haven't heard me sing!" Sirius protested.

"And we don't want to!" James whispered.

"Would you be _quiet_!" the redhead girl snapped.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward with a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted." She announced. "Avery, Richard."

A skinny boy with short blonde hair and a mean grimace strutted up to the stool. The hat was on his head for about fifteen seconds before it announced, "Slytherin!" causing the table on the end to clap and cheer loudly. He got up and took a seat at the end of that table.

"Baisley, Isabelle!" A tall, brown haired girl sat on the stool and after thirty seconds it announced that she was a "Hufflepuff!" She took her place at the second table, which was clapping loudly.

"Black, Sirius!" Professor McGonagall called.

"Good luck!" Remus whispered.

"Prove that you aren't a slimy git!" James clapped a hand on Sirius' shoulder. Sirius moved forward to the stool, face expressionless. As he passed Professor Dumbledore, Sirius saw him give him a smile, a twinkly sparkling in his eye. McGonagall dropped the Sorting Hat on his head and it fell down over his eyes.

"Another Black. Hmmm, usually I'd automatically declare Slytherin, but you're different. Let's go through the houses, shall we? You are a _pureblood_-," said the hat's voice in Sirius' ear.

"I don't_ care_ about blood status!" Sirius snapped in his head.

"I know! Don't lose your head! I was _going_ to say that you wouldn't be the best Slytherin. Now, you are smart, so Ravenclaw is an option, but you don't care too much about learning."

"I have better and more fun things to do that _read a book or study_!" Sirius scoffed.

"So not the best Ravenclaw… What about Hufflepuff? Well, you're loyal, but patience is defiantly not your thing, I can tell. So, Gryffindor? You are very brave. Especially to go against your family's views and do what you think is right. Plus, you're very daring and got some nerve. You'd be a good Gryffindor."

"So put me in Gryffindor!" Sirius cried in his head.

"Not so fast. We narrowed it down to Slytherin and Gryffindor. You can't ignore the fact that you're cunning and a pureblood. Ah, you don't want to be a 'slimy git', as your friend put it. Alrighty, I knew it from the start, I was just messing with you. You belong in GRYFFINDOR!" the Sorting Hat shouted aloud the last word.

The applause from the Gryffindor table was deafening. Louder than the Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables had been for the other two. The Slytherins were in shock. A BLACK was something _other _than a Slytherin! It had never happened before. This was clearly shown on the Slytherin and teacher's faces.

Sirius stood up and looked at the clapping Gryffindor table.

Bellatrix stood up at the Slytherin table. "What!" she screeched. "That isn't possible! He's a BLACK!"

"Ha!" a Gryffindor yelled across the hall. "Looks like the Blacks are realizing that Slytherin is full of prejudiced gits! REJECTED!"

Bellatrix Black's murderous stare could be seen from a mile away. Feeling confident, Sirius walked down to the Gryffindor table and took a seat. Through the mass of kids Sirius could see the proud smile his cousin, Andromeda Black was giving him. He looked back up at the waiting first years and saw the broad grin and thumbs up James gave him.

"Crawford, Melanie!" a blond, freckly girl became a Ravenclaw. "Grace, Kristen," a short girl with long blonde hair became a Gryffindor.

"Evans, Lily!" McGonagall called. The redhead girl walked forward with trembling legs and sat down upon the rickety stool.

'Gryffindor, Gryffindor!' James prayed. He didn't want her becoming a Slytherin with Snivellus. Snivellus could _not_ win! Win what? James didn't know but he did know two things:

He liked Lily

He didn't like Severus

Barely a second after it had touched the dark red hair, the hat cried, "Gryffindor!" James heard Severus let out a tiny groan. Lily took off the hat, handed it back to Professor McGonagall, then hurried toward the cheering Gryffindors. Sirius moved up the bench to make room for her but she took one look at him, seemed to recognize him from the train, folded her arms, and firmly turned her back on him.

The roll continued. "Fabraye, Haley," became a Hufflepuff, along with, "Gregory, Joshua," and, "Hodkins, Artie." Ravenclaw received "Farce, Michael," and "Joy, Michelle."

A tall, skinny boy named, "Lestrange, Rabastain," became the next Slytherin, right after "Larkin, Dorea."

After, "Longbottom, Frank," became a Ravenclaw, it was Remus' turn. Remus had been shaking as McGonagall got closer to his name. What if the Sorting Hat told him that no houses would take him since he was a werewolf? What if the hat told everyone he was a werewolf? He was still trembling when Professor McGonagall called, "Lupin, Remus!" As he walked up he failed to notice that all of the teachers had sat up straighter to see where the young werewolf would be placed. McGonagall dropped the hat onto Remus' head and it fell past his eyes.

"A werewolf, eh?" said a voice in Remus' ear.

'Oh, no!' Remus thought miserably. 'Here it comes!'

"Relax, kid! I'm not going to send you home! And it's not my job to tell everyone people's secrets. Back to the sorting. Hmmm, it takes a lot of courage to go through every transformation, especially the first one at such a young age. And coming here shows your bravery, and you aren't afraid to stick up for yourself and others. There's also a lot of smarts in here, too. You have a real taste of initiative when it comes to learning. Gryffindor or Ravenclaw? I think your courage outshines your intellect. Better be GRYFFINDOR!"

Remus stood up to a deafening cheer from the far table. He glanced back at the High Table and saw Professor Dumbledore wink at him before taking a seat across from Sirius.

The sorting continued, all the way up to "Pettigrew, Peter!" Peter bit his lip as he sat on the stool and the hat fell on his head.

"You are difficult to place. You don't have the best mind, or a real sense of loyalty. You are a bit cunning, so Slytherin is an option. Oh, but your newfound strength to stand up for yourself takes courage. I think Gryffindor will help you. GRYFFINDOR!" the old wizard's hat announced.

Peter got up and shuffled down to sit next to Remus.

James was excited- he was _next_! "Potter, James," McGonagall read.

Feeling confident, James strolled over to the stool and sat down. When the hat fell on his head, he heard, "Oh this is just too easy! GRYFFINDOR!" James beamed and headed over to the cheering table to sit next to Sirius.

The sorting went on and the four boys found out that Snivellus' last name is Snape, and became, wait for it, a Slytherin.

When, at last, everybody was sorted, Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.

"Finally!" Sirius cried. "I'm _so_ hungry!"

"Food!" moaned Peter, who was staring at the empty golden plate in front of him, as if it would magically be filled with food suddenly.

The headmaster rose to his feet, spread his arms, and instantly all of the babble quieted down. "Welcome!" he said, a smile beaming on his face, "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Victus! Esca! Cibo! Xpaha! Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. As they did, the dishes on the tables were filled with heaping piles of food. Every food you could imagine was represented on the golden platters. The platters kept refilling, even as all of the students filled their plates.

"Victus,esca, cibo, xpaha. Victus, esca, cibo, xpaha. I need to remember that next time I'm hungry!" Sirius chanted as he piled his plate high with food.

"I knew I liked all of you chaps! And look! Now we are roommates for the next seven years! Before you know it- we'll be brothers!" James exclaimed as he took a bite out of his roast beef.

"I can't believe we were all on the train together and then all became Gryffindors! Black took forever! It was over five minutes before the hat announced Gryffindor!" Remus added in disbelief.

"Don't call me Black! I don't want to be reminded that I'm a part of that dreadful family." Sirius said in a low voice. "I'd rather everyone just call me Sirius."

"And me James!"

"And me Peter!"

They all looked expectantly at Remus, who was nonchalantly taking a sip of his pumpkin juice. "Well?"

"I kind of like Lupin."

"Oh- come on! Remmy!" James whined.

"I'm just kidding! And don't call me Remmy!" Remus added.

"Whatever you say, Remmy! Anyways, what did the hat say to you?" James asked Sirius.

"It went through all the houses, pointing out my similarities and differences to each one. He narrowed me down to Gryffindor and Slytherin, and then said he was just messing with me and that he knew I was a Gryffindor all along." Sirius answered.

"I saw you scowl a few times!" James commented.

"That's what he did for me! Went through the houses, I mean." Peter added.

"The hat was deciding between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor for me." Remus said. "And you, James, took like two seconds!"

James beamed. "I can't wait to tell my dad I'm a Gryffindor!"

"Just wait until my parents find out that I'm not in Slytherin. I bet I get a Howler!"

"So who are our new Gryffindors?" said a ghost in an older style, ruffley robes that glided up and sat next to James. His arm touched James, which caused him to yelp at the ice-cold sensation.

"James Potter," "Sirius Black," "Remus Lupin," "Peter Pettigrew," "Lily Evans," "Kristen Grace," "Alice McKinnon," "Laurie Terrell," "Elena Young." They went around in a large circle and introduced themselves to the ghost.

"Splendid! I'm Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington! Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower. I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year! Last year Ravenclaw won and the year before that Slytherin. It's time for us to win again!"

"Of course we will help you, Sir!" Lily promised.

"What happened to your neck?" Alice asked, noticing the scar that wrapped around the ghost's neck.

"Alice! Don't be rude!" Lily reprimanded.

"She's just curious. Take a chill pill Lily!" Laurie snapped.

"Calm down! _Some _people refer to me as Nearly Headless Nick, although I do _not_ prefer it, because my death involved being hit repeatedly in the neck with an axe. I would prefer to be called Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, Sir Nicholas for short, if you please." The ghost stressed the last part.

"Nearly headless? Can we see?" Sirius exclaimed eagerly.

"I suppose it's better to show you all at once to get it over with. Kids these days are so curious… Anyway, this is how I'm nearly headless." He said, seizing his left ear and pulling to have his head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge.

Comments like, "Whoa!" and, "Cool!" were heard in the midst of some disgusted looks from a few of the girls.

At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

"I hope you all enjoyed your meal, I know that I thought the treacle tart was delectable. Now that we are all fed and watered, I have a few more reminders and start-of-term notices to give you.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. Apollyon Pringle asked me to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes or in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house team should contact Madam Hooch.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. He gave his wand a little flick and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

"Everyone pick their favorite tune, and off we go!"

The school bellowed:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald,

Or young with scabby knees!

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff!

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot

Just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot!"

Everybody finished the song at different times, and it was clear that not everyone was gifted with a musical talent.

"Ah- music! Now off to bed! Follow your prefects!" Dumbledore said, wishing them all a good night.

As all of the Gryffindor first years got up first to follow a prefect, Remus whispered to Sirius, "Okay, now I've heard you sing, and like I said before, you suck at it!" Sirius hit Remus on the head.

The Gryffindors pushed through the crowds and up a marble staircase. The other houses were going into other directions, some to the right, some to the left, and some downstairs. About halfway up a staircase, a floating man appeared with a bucket full of water balloons and started chucking them at the first years. The prefect, Lucy Hyde, simply waved her wand and all of the water in the balloons disappeared. She barely glanced at the fuming man when she said, "Nice try Peeves. Guys, that was Peeves the Poltergeist. He can be a nuisance so don't fuel the fire." The Gryffindors went through multiple doorways and tapestries and switched stairways a few times before stopping on the highest story in front of a portrait of a fat woman in a pink dress.

She looked at them before saying, "Password?"

"Coraggio," Lucy said promptly, and the portrait swung open to reveal a hole in the wall.

"Coraggio, I think that means 'bravery' in Italian." Remus commented.

"Know-it-all." James muttered.

"I _was_ almost a Ravenclaw!" Remus shot back.

They entered the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs. Lucy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. The door led to a spiral staircase that led both up and down. At the very bottom of the stairs was a door with a sign over it that said, "First years." Inside they found a circular room with four four-poster beds that were hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Sirius' things were on the bedside table for the bed to their immediate right. To the right of him was James' bed, then Remus', and then Peter's, and then you were back to the door. Between Sirius' and James' beds was a window, along with another one between Remus' and Peters' and both gave fantastic views of the grounds. There was a door between James' and Remus' beds that led to a bathroom with showers. They were all so tired they quickly changed into their pajamas and fell asleep.

**Please tell me what you think in a review! It would be amazing if you did. I only have three reviews- I would really appreciate some more feedback!**

**Review Question (pretty basic): What house do you think you would be in at Hogwarts? **

**-Pixie97**


	5. Of Jokes and Kitchens

**I'm so sorry this is late! I don't have a good excuse: just writers block and super busy. This chapter isn't the best since I tried to get it out as quickly as possible. Thanks to XSummerxKissesX and DarthAbby for reviewing!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter **

Remus did not have sweet dreams on his first night in the castle. He had a nightmare where everything was a big joke and he couldn't actually be a student at Hogwarts. His new roommates, the Sorting Hat, Professor Dumbledore, and even his parents mocked and laughed at him for falling for it. When he finally woke himself up out of that one he was only awake for a minute before he was sucked into another bad dream. He dreamed of the night he was bitten, but his subconscious added to it, and the older werewolf taunted Remus, telling him how he was planning on ruining his life and listing all the things he wouldn't be able to do. The dream skipped forward to his first transformation. The fear and pain he had felt was relived as he screamed and thrashed until he heard, "Remus! Remmy! C'mon, wake up!" He slowly opened his eyes, panting and sweaty; to see James' concerned face.

"Are you okay?" James whispered, relaxing when Remus woke up.

"Ye-yeah. Just a bad dream." Remus replied, putting his head in his hands.

"Here's a Chocolate Frog. It's left over form the train. Whenever I have a bad dream my mom would give me a mug of hot chocolate. Its not the same, but it's the closest I have." James said, handing him the sweet.

"Thanks James," Remus started eating the chocolate right away. "I really appreciate you waking me up."

"Don't mention it. After all, we're brothers now!" James clapped him on the back.

"Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure how I slept through all this snoring! They're louder than a herd of elephants!" James was referring to Sirius and Peter's snoring, which filled the room.

"Sorry. You can go back to sleep now if you want. I'll be fine." Remus whispered.

"Nah, it's already 5:00! I'll wait up with you," James promised. They stayed up eating leftover sweets for another half hour, before James went back to his bed and they both fell asleep, nightmare free.

James woke up in the morning and looked over at the clock on his nightstand. 7:45 AM. 'I wonder what kind of breakfast they have here!' was the first thing that went through his mind.

Drawing back his curtains, he noticed that Remus was in the shower and the other two were still snoring away. He tip-toed over to Sirius' bed. "Get up! Sirius! I'm hungry so GET UP!" Sirius groaned and rolled over. James picked up a pillow and started hitting Sirius with it repeatedly, but Sirius wouldn't get up.

"It might be easier to just flip the mattress," said a thoughtful voice from behind him.

"Good thinking Remmy! Let's flip on three! One, two, THREE!" They flipped Sirius mattress and Sirius went rolling out of the sheets and sprawled out on the floor.

"Argh!" Sirius yelled. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm hungry and you wouldn't get up!" James replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Wh-what's all the commotion?" Peter asked, pulling back his curtains.

"These two _gits_," Sirius glared at James and Remus, who looked away innocently, "decided to wake me up by FLIPPING MY BED!"

"We _could_ waste time dwelling on the past, _or_ we could move on and take a shower so James can eat!" James suggested.

After James, Sirius, and Peter were showered and dressed, they headed back to the common room and through the portrait hole. But now, as they stood at the top of a staircase, looking down at 141 other overlapping ones below them, they realized something important.

"Uh, guys? Does anyone remember how to get to the Great Hall?" James asked.

"Shouldn't be too hard, eh? Just keep going down until we reach the bottom!" Sirius decided.

Turns out, it was very hard. Some of the staircases led to dead ends or long corridors. Some led only to up staircases, or changed mid way. The pictures on the wall gave different directions, so they had no idea which ones to listen to. They couldn't find any students or teachers to ask, either.

"Ugh! I give up! It's already 9:00!" James exclaimed, looking at his watch.

"We should've gone with an older Gryffindor," Remus reasoned.

"Gee, that's a good idea. Except it's too late for that now!" Sirius said.

"Ooh! Look, it's the wide marble staircase! We left the Great Hall on that last night!" Peter squeaked, pointing.

"Thank Merlin!" Sirius cried as they finally reached the open doors of the Great Hall. They took a spot at the end of the Gryffindor table and dug in.

"Hey boys! Did you find the Great Hall easily this morning?" Lucy Hyde asked, sliding into the bench beside James.

"No! It took _forever_!" Sirius whined.

Lucy laughed, which made her strawberry blonde curls bounce. "How long?"

"A little less than an hour," Peter answered.

"Eh, average. The girls aren't down yet, which means they are wandering the castle hopelessly lost like you were not too long ago." Lucy observed.

"How long did it take you when you were a First Year?" Remus inquired.

"About twenty five minutes. Halfway we ran into Sir Nicholas who gave me and my roommates directions!"

"No fair!" James accused.

"I think that a prefect should take us the first time!" Remus said pointedly.

"What good would babying the whittle firsties do? Gryffindors can't go soft! Oooh, look! Mail's here!" She said, noticing a few owls fly in through the windows.

The boys looked up and suddenly a hundred owls filled the hall. They carried newspapers, letters, and packages of things people had forgotten at home. They swooped down to their recipients, dropping the mail in front of them. A pitch black owl swooped down towards them and dropped a green envelope on Sirius' waffle. They all stared at the smoking letter.

Lucy looked nervously at Sirius. "It's best that you go ahead and open it," she informed him.

"I know," Sirius replied, opening the envelope. Immediately, Warburga Black's screeching voice filled the Great Hall.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! GRYFFINDOR? HOW COULD YOU HAVE BEEN SORTED INTO GRYFFINDOR? YOU ARE A BLACK! I'M POSITIVELY _DISGUSTED_ AND _EMBARASSED_ TO CALL YOU MY SON! TONJOURS PUR! TONJOURS PUR! SLYTHERINS ARE ALWAYS PURE! YOU BELONG WITH THEM! BUT NO, YOU HAVE TO GO AGAINST EVERYTHING I SAY AND LOOK WHERE IT LANDED YOU! IN A HOUSE CRAWLING WITH _MUDBLOODS _AND_ BLOOD-TRAITORS_! I COULDN'T BELIEVE MY EYES WHEN I READ THAT LETTER FROM BELLATRIX LAST NIGHT! A BLACK, MY SON, NOT IN SLYTHERIN! WELL I HOPE YOU'RE MISERABLE THERE BECAUSE YOU ONLY PUNISHED YOURSELF THIS TIME!"

The entire Great Hall was silent for a few moments, all eyes on Sirius. Slowly, chatter filled the room once more.

"I so called it last night! I knew I was going to get a Howler." Sirius said casually, not showing any sign that he was bothered by his mother's words.

"Um, mate? Aren't you upset, even a little, about the Howler?" James asked cautiously.

"Nah. Why would I be? She's just mad at me since I didn't become a Slytherin. Her yelling isn't anything new." Sirius shrugged.

"But she's your mother," Remus said bluntly.

"Eh, I hate her. She hates me. Not the typical loving mother-son relationship."

They continued chatting and eating their excellent breakfast, with Lucy leaving to go back to her friends just a few minutes later. After breakfast they followed Ben Brown, the other 5th Year Prefect, back to the common room. When they entered their dormitory, they noticed that an owl hovered outside of one of the windows. Once they let it in, the owl gave James a box and a letter before flying away.

James opened the letter first. It read:

_Jamesie!_

_Oh, we are so proud of you! Another Gryffindor in the family! Henry was ecstatic when he heard. Knowing you, you are probably wondering how we already know what house you are in! If you were little, I'd wink and say, "Magic!" but now you are older and wiser, so I confess, I had Dumbledore tell me right away. He's such a great headmaster._

_Anyway, Jamesiekins, your father and I are so unbelievably proud of you! I'm sure you will make great friends. To help you make them, I've enclosed four dozen chocolate chip cookies. I know the house elves are fabulous cooks, but these are your favorite and no one can beat your momma's cookies!_

_The house is so different with you gone! I know, it hasn't even been twenty four hours, but I miss my James! I got up early (its like 5 AM now) to make the cookies and send you this letter in time for breakfast, so I think I deserve some more sleep! You know how cranky I get when I don't get my sleep!_

_Do well in school! Stay out of trouble; you don't want your teachers to have a bad first impression of you! You'll have them for the next seven years! Be good! I love you! _

_Lots of Love,_

_Mum_

At the bottom, in Henry's handwriting, was_:_

_P.S. - Pears like to laugh!_

"Pears like to laugh? What does that mean?" Remus asked as they read the letter over James' shoulder.

"My dad is giving me hints as to where the kitchen is. I'm supposed to find a bowl of fruit and make the pear laugh." James answered.

"Let's go find it then! We don't have anything to do today!" Sirius suggested.

"Great idea! Let's go!" James agreed.

"Before we go, can I have a cookie?" Peter asked.

"Sure! We can just start the search after lunch!"

In the time left before lunch, the four boys ate half of the, according to Sirius, best cookies in the world. James also wrote a letter back to his parents and sent it off with his owl, Robin.

A little after 12:30, they heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Remus called. The door opened to reveal the tall figure of Ben Brown.

"Hey kids. Its lunchtime, so if you want to go down there without getting lost, I suggest you come along now." He then turned and ascended the stairs, with James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter scrambling after.

At dinner that night, Professor McGonagall went around giving out schedules. "Classes start Monday. You are expected to arrive at each one prepared and on time. You may find it useful to spend tomorrow locating your classrooms," she advised, handing each boy a schedule.

They each unfolded the parchment to see this:

Gryffindor First Year Class Schedule

7:30 AM

Breakfast

9 AM

1st Class

10 AM

2nd Class

11 AM

Break

11:30 AM

3rd Class

12:30 PM

Lunch

2 PM

Break

3 PM

4th Class

4 PM

5th Class

5 PM

Free Time

6 PM

Supper

8 PM

First Year Curfew

Monday, Wednesday, Friday Classes

1st

Transfiguration with Slytherin

2nd

Herbology with Hufflepuff

3rd

Charms with Ravenclaw

4th

Free Period

5th

Defense Against the Dark Arts with Slytherin

Tuesday, Thursday Classes

1st

Astronomy with Hufflepuff

2nd

History of Magic with Ravenclaw

3rd

Free Period

4th

Potions with Slytherin

5th

Potions with Slytherin

Wednesday Only: Astronomy: Midnight with all houses

"Alright! We've got a free period everyday!" Sirius exclaimed happily.

"But look, we have Transfiguration and double Potions with Slytherin!" James groaned.

"I liked Professor McGonagall's idea. How about we find our classrooms tomorrow?" Remus asked.

"You seriously want to spend your Sunday finding classrooms?" Sirius asked incredulously. "Why?"

"It's actually not a bad idea. And while we are we can look for a large bowl of fruit with a laughing pear! We only searched one floor today!" James said.

"Or maybe you have to make the pear laugh." Remus reasoned.

"Brilliant! Sounds like a plan!"

That night, a little after eight, James started complaining.

"I'm bored!" He whined, "I say we do something!"

"I agree!" Peter piped up.

"Why don't we continue looking for the kitchens?" Sirius suggested. "Do you think they'd make me some more of that treacle tart? It was soo good!"

"We can't go out now!" Remus warned.

"Why not?" Peter asked.

"It's after curfew! It's a quarter after 8!" He informed.

"Merlin's beard, James! Did you know that?" Sirius exclaimed, faking an air of great surprise.

"I hadn't!" James played along. "And to think, we were thinking about going out fifteen whole minutes past eight o'clock! The horror!"

"This changes everything!"

"It's a good thing we had a goody two shoes to inform us! Who knows what could've happened?"

Remus glared at them. "I just don't want to get in trouble on our second night here!"

"Say we get caught. What happens? We get sent back here with a slap on the wrist? We could easily have gotten lost, or lost track of time!" James reasoned.

"I say we go!" Sirius declared.

"I second that!" James agreed.

"Me three!" Peter squeaked. They looked expectantly at Remus.

He sighed. "Whatever. I'm in."

They searched the top of three floors for a large bowl of fruit, or a painting of one, with no luck. They had several close calls with Prefects, and they had to duck behind several suits of armor to avoid getting caught. Just as they were about to descend a staircase, they heard a sharp cough from behind them. Spinning around, they came face to face with a very unhappy Professor McGonagall.

"What are you four doing out of bed?"

"Um….uhhhh," They wracked their heads for a good excuse.

"Remus here wasn't feeling well. We thought we'd take him to the Hospital Wing," James said quickly. Sirius elbowed Remus in the ribs and gave him a meaningful look. Remus understood and twisted his face into a sickly grimace and clutched his stomach.

"I think it was something I ate, Professor."

"And why are you all on the opposite side of the castle from the Hospital Wing if your intention was bringing him to it?"

"We got lost. We've never been there before," Sirius explained.

"Uh, huh. I suppose it never crossed your mind to ask a Prefect for directions either." She said, clearly not believing their story.

"We haven't seen any Professor!"

"Really? That's strange since I've seen several on this very floor." After no response, she lectured, "I do hope that being in Gryffindor isn't a joke to you. We need to win the House Cup this year and you four marauding around the castle is not helping anyone. I expect better of my Gryffindors and I simply won't have this behavior. I will escort you back to your dormitory, where you will immediately go to bed. If I see you out again, I will not hesitate to give you detention."

The walk back to the portrait hole was a silent one. Evidently, being escorted back to their dormitory meant that she walks down the stairs to your dormitory and make sure you all go in it. Luckily, the common room was deserted so no one witnessed this.

"No! You heard McGonagall last night! We are _not _going out again!" Remus yelled at his roommates.

"Come on! She won't catch us again! We'll be careful, I promise!" James pleaded to a stubborn Remus. "There's only one floor left to search, so we are bound to find the kitchens tonight! Besides, classes start in the morning, so we won't have time to look tomorrow!"

"What about free period?" Remus shot back.

"I'm going tonight! Who's with me?" James decided.

"Me!" Sirius immediately agreed.

"I-I dunno. I kind of agree with Remus." Peter said timidly.

James glared at Peter. "Fine. Have fun stuck in here!" He strolled over to the door with Sirius at his heels.

"How are you both in Gryffindor? You don't even have the guts to break curfew!" Sirius accused as they exited the dormitory.

They crept down the staircases, carefully watching for teachers and prefects. After going to the Great Hall for meals three times a day the past two days, they didn't have much trouble getting from the seventh floor to the first. When they had said that they only had one floor left, they weren't technically telling the truth. All they had left were the dungeons, but they had no idea how many floors they were.

James and Sirius were silent as they searched, until at last they came across a huge painting of a bowl of fruit.

"We've found it! I can't believe it! Second day and we've already found the kitchens!" James whispered excitedly.

"Our hard work had paid off!" Sirius exclaimed.

"How do we get the pear to laugh?"

"Tell it a joke?" Sirius suggested.

"Okay. I've got one." James cleared his throat. "What did the fish say when he ran into a wall? Dam!" Sirius snickered, but the pear remained unchanged.

"Maybe it has to be kitchen related humor."

"You want to try?" James offered, but Sirius shook his head.

"I don't know many jokes. I don't exactly have a humorous family."

"Okay, ummm," James said, thinking hard. "Is your refrigerator running? Then you better go catch it!"

Sirius gave James an incredulous look. "Is that the best you can do?"

"What? You said _kitchen related humor_!" James defended. "How about we try something else?"

"Like?"

"We could tickle it!"

"Brilliant!" Sirius reached to the pear and tickled it. It started to giggle and formed a solid handle. Grinning, Sirius pulled on the handle. The portrait opened up to reveal a large room. House elves hustled about, as they cooked away. One spotted them and immediately rushed to the boys and bowed.

"Sir! And sir!" He squeaked mid-bow. "What can Gusto do for you?"

James and Sirius looked at each other, grinning.

"We were hoping for a late night snack." James began.

"Preferably some treacle tart." Sirius suggested.

"And I wouldn't say no to some hot chocolate either," James added.

Gusto was nodding so vigorously that they were worried that his head would fall off. "It would be Gusto's privilege to serve you, sirs. If you'd like to take a seat at that table, Gusto would happily fix your snack, sirs."

"That'd be great!" James exclaimed. "You can call me James."

"And me Sirius."

"Of course, Master James and Master Sirius! It will be only a minute, Master James and Master Sirius! If you'd excuse me, Master James and Master Sirius!" Gusto gushed, bowing once more.

James and Sirius ate heapings of food, as Gusto always brought them something new to eat that they simply couldn't resist. Figuring it must me nearly 2 o'clock in the morning, they finally got up to head back to their dormitory.

"Thank you so much, Gusto!" They thanked on their way out.

"It was a pleasure to have you visit! Please come back anytime! It would be Gusto's privilege to give you each another mug of hot chocolate to take with you!" He squeaked, handing them each another cup of steaming chocolate.

The castle was deserted on their way back. They had nearly reached the painting of the Fat Lady when they heard, "Black! Potter! Again, really? Are you serious?"

Knowing they were caught, Sirius couldn't help but say, "Yes, I am. But this here is James."

McGonagall was not pleased. "I cannot believe you both are out again, defying both the school rules and my orders. You both will be serving detention with me-,"

A soft voice cut her off, "Ah, thank you boys. I see you got my hot chocolate for me."

The three turned in surprise to see the headmaster, arm stretched out as if to receive his hot beverage.

James and Sirius quickly rearranged their faces to look like they knew what he was talking about. James, who hadn't drank much of his hot chocolate, held his out, "It was no problem, sir. Here you go!"

McGonagall was abashed, "S-sir? You asked these two boys to get you hot chocolate?"

"I had quite the craving. Now I do believe its getting late, so I think that Mr. Potter and Mr. Black should be going back to bed," he suggested pointedly.

"Yes, sir." They quickly told the Fat Lady, "Coraggio," and disappeared into the Gryffindor Common Room, hearing McGonagall's disbelieving protests behind them. They entered their dormitory, laughing at their good luck and satisfied with themselves for already finding the kitchens and escaping trouble on their second day in the castle.

**Like I said before: I'm so sorry for not updating! Unfortunately, I am leaving today to go on vacation and I won't get back until next Friday. It is highly unlikely that I will even have time to write another chapter while I'm gone, so the chances of an update are…slim. Then I am leaving Saturday morning to go to the beach for a week. I will probably be able to write, just not post, so expect some updates the week of the 17****th****. Sorry- it's the summer.**

**-Pixie97**


	6. Of Alarms and Tunnels

**I'm so sorry this is late! Enough excuses, thank you so much for your reviews!**

**Disclaimer: Same as before**

The quiet of the dormitory, or as quiet as it could be with Sirius' and Peter's snoring, was split with the wailing of a banshee. The four boys shot up in their beds as they heard it, hands pressed firmly over their heads as an attempt to block out the noise.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT?" Sirius screamed, but he could barely hear himself over the noise.

Remus pried one hand from his ears to reach over to his night stand and slam his hand on the 'dismiss' button on his alarm clock. "Sorry! Sorry guys!" he apologized.

"What was that for?" Peter yelled over the ringing in his ears.

"It was just my alarm clock. I set it for seven o'clock so we'd be up and ready in time for breakfast. Remember, we have class today!" Remus said the last part excitedly.

"What was the point of the _freaking banshee_?" Sirius accused. "What is wrong with bells or something _normal_?"

"I had bells yesterday, but no one woke up besides me, and in order to wake Sirius up, we had to flip the bed! So today, I set my alarm clock to "Extra Loud: For People Who Simply Won't Wake Up," I must say, it did work." Remus defended.

"If you mean made us deaf, then yes, it did work!"

"What is with you and making us deaf? Remember your little explosion on the train?" James reminded.

"I said I was sorry! Tomorrow I will set it for "Loud: Heavy Sleepers Be Warned," instead."Remus adjusted the settings on the alarm clock. "Now, we do have to get up."

"I don't wanna!" Sirius moaned, pulling his covers over his head. "I've only been asleep for like four hours!"

"That's your fault! I told you not to go out last night!" Remus reached over to the alarm clock and pressed a button, setting off the banshee once more.

"ALRIGHT! Alright, I'm up!" Sirius mumbled under his breath about annoying roommates as he headed into the bathroom to take a shower.

******8******

Although the boys had finally figured out how to get from the Gryffindor Tower to the Great Hall without getting _too_ lost, they still didn't know their way around the castle. They couldn't remember where the Transfiguration classroom was from the day before and each boy thought it was in a different direction. They finally ran into Sir Nicholas with five minutes until nine, to discover they were a good ten minute walk from it. Luckily, they weren't the only ones late and Professor McGonagall excused them.

After a long lecture about the art of Transfiguration and a demonstration where she turned her desk into a pig and back, they were ready to get started. They spent another fifteen minutes taking notes on how to turn your match into a needle. Or, they were supposed to be taking notes, as Remus constantly reminded them. James and Sirius passed notes back and forth about how greasy Snivellus was in the front row and they created a list of pranks they wanted to try out on him.

"If you sir, Mr.-?" Professor McGonagall prompted.

"Snape,"

"If Mr. Snape would pass out the matches for me, then you all can get started. I do not expected any of you to succeed right away, but I do believe that some of you, if you've paid attention and apply yourselves, will be able to succeed by the end of the class. Some of you will struggle throughout not just today's lesson, but transfiguration throughout the entire year. If you study and practice, you will be able to pass my class. Others, however," McGonagall looked right at James and Sirius, "who choose to pass notes and break rules, will not."

James and Sirius proved her wrong in the first two minutes. James, who had barely paid attention to the lesson, turned his match into a needle on his second try. Sirius managed it on his sixth.

"Professor! I've done it Professor!" James called, holding up a silver, pointy needle. McGonagall looked up from her desk, shock and suspicion on her face. Lily Evans looked up in disbelief, saw the needle, and immediately turned back to her match, repeating the spell furiously without affect. Snape too looked up at the shiny needle, and resumed back to work, but not without giving James a look of contempt.

"I am…impressed, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said as she reached his desk in the back of the classroom. "Maybe I was wrong about you. And you too, Mr. Black," she added, noticing the needle on his desk.

By the end of the class, only James, Sirius, Remus, and Lily successfully transfigured their matches into needles. Peter had caught his on fire, which did not please Professor McGonagall.

"Hey Evans!" James approached Lily on the way out of class, draped his arm over her shoulder, and gave her a winning smile. "Impressed?" He added, holding out a handful of needles.

"Go away Potter!" She shrugged out from under him.

"Wait! I wanted to know if-," but she had already left the corridor.

James walked back to his friends with a crestfallen expression on his face.

"Hate to break it to you mate, but I don't think she likes you very much!" Sirius laughed.

"Nonsense! She just doesn't know me that well yet!"

There rest of the day was uneventful. In Herbology, they went around the greenhouse drawing sketches and taking notes on different 'basic, must-know' plants, according to Professor Berula. In Charms, Professor Deleniti, who was a very old woman, gave them a brief overview of charm work, then had them take a survey on what they were interested in learning that year.

During Free Period, they were walking through a corridor back to the tower when Peeves flew through and doused them in blue paint, and flew away cackling with four angry boys yelling after him. Covered in blue, they had no choice but to change directions and head to the nearest bathroom. Halfway there the bitter old caretaker, Pringle showed up.

"Aha! So you four are the ones tracking paint everywhere for me to clean up! I suppose you want me to break my back scrubbing! You come with me right now to my office! You'll learn your lesson after a good whipping!" The old man made a move to grab them by the arm.

The four boys looked at each other and said in unison, "Run!" and they bolted. Pringle chased them down the charms corridor to a flight of stairs. Sirius and Peter ran down them and kept running full speed ahead, but Remus pulled James behind a large statue of a stone griffin.

James and Remus watched as Pringle paused in front of a gas lamp on the wall about a yard from the stairway and twisted it sideways. The ground beneath it opened up into a type of tunnel and he slid down it. As soon as he was out of view, the ground slid back into place and the lamp turned right side up again.

"Whoa! Did you see that?" Remus gasped.

"I sure did! Let's go down it!" James started forward with Remus by his side.

After making sure that no one was watching, James twisted the lamp and the floor slid out from under him.

"It's dark. Lumos!" Remus said and instantly his wand lit up the passageway.

The tunnel was more like a long, not very steep, slide. After going a hundred yards, they came across a fork in the tunnel, the left tunnel dropping very steeply and the right bending so you couldn't see where it ends.

"Which one?" James asked.

"I don't know. Maybe-," Remus started, but he lost his grip on the wall that kept him still which caused him to push both James and himself down the left tunnel.

"AHHHHHHHH!" They yelled as they free fell down the vertical tunnel. Suddenly, the tunnel leveled out, causing James to hit the ground painfully and Remus to crash on top of him. James reached forward to the little door in front of him and squeezed out, Remus close behind. Looking around, they realized that they were in the chamber just off of the Great Hall that they had first come in on their first day and that they had come through a small, black painting on floor level.

"I don't see Pringle. He must've taken the right tunnel." Remus observed. "We are also going to need to clean up all of the blue paint we got in the tunnel."

"Yeah, sure, we can do that when we see where the right tunnel goes! Man, that was AWESOME! Plus, it gets you to the Great Hall so much quicker! I can't wait to show Sirius and Peter that!" James exclaimed.

"We can show them in free period tomorrow, rights now we need to go get cleaned up."

******8******

"What happened to you guys?" Peter accused as he and Sirius walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom that afternoon.

"We hid behind a stone griffin. But you won't believe what we found!" James said excitedly.

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius dismissed. "So, we were almost to the Trophy Room, right, and we'd thought we'd lost him when suddenly Pringle pops out of nowhere and catches us! So now we have to spend all of our free time before dinner tonight cleaning up all of the blue paint! Plus we got detention tomorrow night after dinner!"

"That's some bad luck, mate. But you won't believe what we found!" James tried again.

"Gee you don't even care! I bet you would if you were the one having to clean and get detention!" Sirius accused.

"No, I do, it's just that, Remus and I found-,"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU AND REMUS FOUND! That's beside the point! You are too selfish to even care-,"

"WE FOUND A SECRET PASSAGEWAY YOU PRAT!" James yelled at him.

Sirius stopped his rant and his face twisted into a smile. "No way! You have to show me!"

They had to stop their conversation as their Defense Against the Dark Arts class started and they begun learning about defensive spells. As soon as that class was over, Sirius and Peter had to leave to go clean up all of the blue paint that Peeves had spilled on them. At dinner that night, Sirius and Peter didn't come in until nearly seven o'clock.

"Ugh! That took FOREVER!" Peter complained, taking a seat next to Remus.

"Have you guys been cleaning this whole time?" Remus asked in disbelief.

"Yeah! We had to clean without magic! I don't know how Muggles do it. I mean, we had to get down on our hands and knees with a sponge and a bucket of soapy water!" Sirius ranted, shoveling food into his mouth.

That night Peter and Sirius collapsed into their beds in exhaustion and slept soundly up until Remus' alarm clock started to blare a phoenix's song throughout the room.

"Ah! That's just as loud as the banshee!" Sirius said, hands over his ears as he sat up in bed.

"At least it's a nicer sound than the banshee! If I set it for anything quieter you guys wouldn't wake up!" Remus defended.

"Ugh…You're going to be the death of me, Lupin!" Sirius grumbled.

"I like the phoenix song! You know, it's supposed to make you braver, which is perfect for us Gryffindors!" James said brightly, wide awake.

"I don't know how you have so much energy James. I mean, it's _seven_ in the morning and you just woke up!"Sirius said.

Classes that day were as generic as the day before. In Astronomy, Professor Sidera went over the proper way to use a telescope and then had them identify constellations on a map of the sky. History of Magic was taught by the most boring man in the world, Professor Binns. From the moment class began, he droned on and one about ancient goblin wars. James and Sirius weren't the only ones to use the class period for a nap.

Once free period started, James and Remus led Sirius and Peter to the fourth floor corridor with the gas lamp.

James walked up to the lamp, winked at Remus, and said, "Check this out!" He reached up and twisted the gas lamp. He just had time to mutter, "Lumos," before the ground disappeared from under his feet and he slid down the slide.

"Whoa! Peter, did you see that?" Sirius nudged him.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Peter said in awe.

"Let me go first. There is a fork in the tunnel so if I go first, I'll be able to tell you which way to go," Remus reasoned. After their muttered assent, he slid down the tunnel. He barely had time to stop himself from running into James, who was stopped at the fork in the tunnel, when Sirius ran full speed into him, and Peter ran into Sirius.

"BLOODY HELL!" James yelled as he was pushed down the right tunnel. The tunnel made two full turns before leveling out and coming to a dead end, causing everyone to run into each other again.

"What happened?" Peter asked, in the back.

"I don't know. It's a dead end right here!" James called back.

"Well there has to be a way out! Pringle went in this tunnel!"

"Ummmm… Maybe there is a button or something that reveals a door!" Sirius suggested.

"Well, there is lever-like thing on the wall. Let's see what it does!" Peter pulled the lever and instantly the ground turned from smooth to jagged, cutting into the boys' bottoms and legs.

"Oww!" They cried.

"What did you do, Peter?" Sirius accused angrily.

"It appears that he made stairs appear! All right! Now we can go up this passageway too!" Remus observed.

"Great," James said. "Now Peter can you _please_ turn the stairs back into a slide!"

"Yeah sure," Peter replied. "Oh, James? Can you shine the light over here? I can't find it!"

"No problem," He said, shining his wand in Peter's direction.

"Wait! Wait! James, shine it back right there!" Remus said pointing. When James obliged, they saw a small doorknob. James reached forward and turned it, causing the dead end to swing open and for them to spill out in the trophy room.

"This must be how Pringle caught us yesterday!" Peter said brightly.

"Duh, how else would he have?" Sirius said incredulously.

Potions class that day didn't start out as much fun for James. Potions was not his thing. Professor Slughorn had them pair up (James with Sirius, Remus with Peter) and create a Babbling Beverage potion. James and Sirius had much difficulty creating it and ended up just giving up at the end of class to joke around.

Snape and Lily, who were paired up, finished first of making what, Slughorn claimed to be, "The most perfect Babbling Beverage he'd ever seen!" Upon hearing this, Snape turned around to sneer at James and Sirius and their failed potion.

"I hate that kid," James muttered to Sirius.

"Same here," Sirius agreed. "If only I had a firecracker. That would mess up his potion!"

"Aw dang it! I don't have one either!" James said, looking through his pockets. "Hey Remmy! Do you happen to have a firecracker that I could borrow?"

"You shouldn't do that to his potion! Stop being a jealous prat!" Remus chided.

"He didn't say he didn't!" James said happily. "Oh, come on Remmy, please?"

"We'll be your best friend!" Sirius put on his best puppy dog face.

"I don't have one!"

"Of course you do! Come on!"

"I'm serious!"

"No, you're Remus. I'm Sirius!"

"That's such a lame joke!"

"Stop getting off topic! Please Rem?"

"I don't have one! But-,"

"Yeah?"

"If you put some talcum powder in it, the potion will cause an acidic reaction," Remus suggested.

"Really?" Sirius asked skeptically. "Is talcum powder even acidic?"

"Well, it actually has to do with the ingredients of the potion. You see, the talcum powder neutralizes the wormwood, causing the-," Remus started to lecture.

"Blah, blah. Whatever. Alright, how do we get it in there?"

"Um, well, Evans is talking to that girl over there, so we just need to distract Snape," Sirius observed.

"I've got an idea," James got up from his seat and walked up to Kristen Grace and Laurie Terrell's table.

"What's he doing?" Peter asked, watching the girls giggle and nod as he talked to them. All of a sudden, James slid back onto the bench.

"Watch this," James winked.

Kristen Grace got up from her seat and went up and to talk to Professor Slughorn at the front of the classroom. On her way back to her seat she stopped by Snape's table, told him something, then returned to Terrell.

"What'd she say to him?" Sirius asked, watching Snape go up to Slughorn.

"I don't know exactly. Something along the lines that Sluggy needs him," James whispered back. "Quick, Sirius, go now! He's not looking!"

Sirius crept up and sprinkled some of his talcum powder into Snape's potion. Instantly, the Babbling Beverage turned stark white and started to bubble.

"Professor! Something is happening to that potion!" Laurie said pointing.

Slughorn, Snape, and Lily instantly rushed back to the potion that was starting to spill over. After a bit of commotion, the potion was cleaned up, leaving a baffled Professor.

"I don't understand why it would do that. You would need to have forgotten the wormwood, but that would have been evident immediately. It seems like there is Talcum Powder in it." Professor Slughorn mused.

"It was Potter and Black, sir! It just had to have been! They're jealous of mine and Lily's potion! They must've slipped some Talcum Powder into our Potion when we weren't looking! You have to punish them! Expel them!" Snape kept blabbering about how James and Sirius were guilty until Slughorn cut in.

"Now, now, don't blame them. I'm sure you wouldn't want them blaming you for a little misunderstanding. Come up to my desk for the antidote for the Babbling Beverage. Class dismissed."

The four boys left the classroom suppressing laughs. "Brilliant! We didn't get caught!"

**So I'm so so sorry I've been MIA. Like I said, I was gone, and there was absolutely no way I could update. Then this weekend I got grounded and lost the laptop, so this was the soonest I could get it out. Please don't hate me, review! **

**-Pixie97**


	7. Of Lateness and Flying

**Sorry for the delay! Please review, I barely have any! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own this**

"Hey, man. I'm sorry about your Aunt Carol," James said sympathetically to Remus.

"It's okay. We weren't that close, I just have to go home for the funeral. I'll be back in a couple of days." Remus muttered, not meeting his roommates in the eyes.

"Well, we're sorry. Which is why," Sirius brought out a package from behind his back. "We got you this."

"Oh no, I can't accept this," Remus said, handing it back.

"Yes, you can. There's four presents in there," James told him. "One from each of us, plus one from my mum. I kind of mentioned it to her in a letter, so she sent me back something for you."

"Thanks guys. I'll open this at home. I told McGonagall I'd meet her outside the portrait hole at four."

"Wait! You said you'd help me with that essay on Devil's Snare!" Peter reminded him.

"Oh," Remus looked uneasy. "I really have to go now. But I'm sure James and Sirius can help you! Bye guys!"

Once Remus was gone, Peter turned to James. "Do you want to work on our essays together?"

"Sorry, bro! Already finished," James said, tossing a foam quaffle back and forth with Sirius.

"How? We just got it Wednesday!" Peter asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, but its due Monday. I wasn't planning on doing it over the weekend!"

"Oh," Peter turned to Sirius. "What about you, Sirius?"

"Finished it in History of Magic Thursday!"

"What? How?" Peter spluttered. "I don't get it! You and James are practically top of the class, but you never study or pay attention! And you get your assignments done super fast, without research or anything! _How_?"

"It's a gift," Sirius shrugged.

"You should ask for it for Christmas," James added.

"Well, usually Remus, who also gets good marks but at least he is focused and studies, helps me. Do you think you guys could?"

"I guess," James conceded.

"Sure first we should go to the kitchens. I'm _starving_!" Sirius whined.

******1******

"Are you guys _asleep_?" Remus screeched.

"Geez Remmy!"

"What's a guy got to do to get some sleep around here?"

"Don't be so loud!"

Remus stood in the doorway to his dormitory. It was 10:30 on a Monday morning and he just got released from the Hospital Wing. He had gone to Herbology but when he got there James, Sirius, and Peter weren't there, nor had they been in Transfiguration he was told. Professor Berula had let him skip the class period to look for them and here they were, in their beds, fast asleep.

The young werewolf stomped over to each bed, pulled back the curtains and let light hit the boy's faces.

"What's your problem?" James mumbled, throwing a pillow that Remus easily caught.

"You guys are impossible." Remus sighed. He walked over to his night stand and hit a button, releasing the wail of a banshee. Only when the other boys were up out of their beds, hands on ears, protesting, did he turn it off.

"ARE YOU BLOODY INSANE?" Sirius yelled, finally able to be heard.

"No! You are!" Remus shot back. "It's a quarter till eleven. You missed your morning classes!"

"WHAT?" Peter screeched, alarmed.

"Eh, who cares?" Sirius shrugged. "It was bound to happen sometime."

"Besides, its not like we were doing anything today," James added.

"Nononononono NO! The Herbology essay was due today! I _can't_ get late credit on it; I'm barely passing as it is!" Peter panicked. "Plus McGonagall said she would give me a little extra credit if I attend every class! This isn't happening!" Peter started to hyperventilate.

"Whoa, calm down, Peter! Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out," Remus directed.

"Yeah, we can just explain what happened. I'm sure they'll understand." Sirius told him.

"Don't worry Peter. We won't let you fail," James reassured him. "We probably should go hand in our essays."

James, Sirius, and Peter skipped showers and quickly pulled on their robes, grabbed their schoolbags, and headed through the castle with Remus, using their new passageway to get from the fourth floor to the first. With one minute until the bell, they entered Greenhouse 1.

"Sorry we're late Professor," James greeted, sliding into his seat as if he were five minutes late, not fifty-nine.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, and Mr. Pettigrew, please stay after class." Professor Berula announced.

Just then, the bell sounded, signaling break.

"Put your essays on my desk. No homework tonight. Class dismissed."

James and Sirius leaned over to where a few Gryffindor girls were packing up. "Wasn't class delightful today?" James asked.

"I really feel like I learned a lot!" Sirius added.

Kristen and Laurie giggled, but Lily scowled and pushed past them with her friend, Alice McKinnon.

Remus stayed after class with his friends. The four of them walked up to her desk together.

"Why weren't you in class today boys?"

"Professor, we overslept. _Somebody_ forgot to turn on the alarm clock!" Sirius said pointedly.

"Whoa, whoa, back up! How is this _my_ fault? I wasn't even here!" Remus said in disbelief.

"Yeah, it's not Remus' fault. We just hate the alarm clock so much that we went without it today since Remus wasn't here," James explained.

She nodded. "And what have you learned today?" Professor Berula said softly.

"That Remus is right. We do need an alarm clock," Sirius said defeated. Remus smiled triumphantly.

"Well, I'm sure that this was just an accident, so I will let it slide this once. However, seeing as you missed class, your essays will have half credit. Not you, Mr. Lupin."

"No! No, please!" Peter, who had been silent before now, cried out, "I _need_ a good grade on it! _Please Professor_!"

"Shouldn't their essays be counted as on time? I mean, they were present in class when you asked for them," Remus reasoned. The other Gryffindors nodded profusely.

Berula smiled. "I suppose you're right. Very well, you may go." They smiled as they started to leave.

"Oh, and boys?" They turned around. "Don't let it happen again."

******1******

If only all the teachers were that forgiving. As the four first years entered the castle, their names were called out.

"Follow me, _now_!" Professor McGonagall snapped. She led them through the castle and into her office. She sat down at her desk while the four boys stood on the opposite side.

"Mr. Lupin, you may leave," McGonagall said. At his protest she added, "_Now_!"

"I'll see you guys later then," Remus said, slowly leaving behind his mates.

"Why weren't you in my class this morning?"

After giving their Transfiguration teacher the same story they gave their Herbology one, it was clear she had a different view than Berula. She believed them, but didn't think it was a simple mistake and should go off unscathed.

"Professor, it was a simple mistake! Surely you understand that!" James protested.

"I understand that, all right. I don't believe, however, that I should pat you on the shoulder and tell you it all will be okay."

"Aw, come on Minnie!" Sirius whined.

McGonagall looked livid. "Minnie?"

"Um, yeah." Sirius said, shrinking back. "Your name plate says Minerva, but that's kind of a mouthful, so Minnie for short!" James snorted. Sirius could've sworn he saw the faintest twitch of her lips.

"It is Professor McGonagall to you, Mr. Black," she snapped. "Now, as I was saying, I will not tolerate anyone skipping my classes, especially not my Gryffindor first years! It is a bad habit to start, which is why, although I believe that you overslept, you will each join me every morning this week at 6:30 AM to go over what you have missed. Each of you has lost five points for Gryffindor."

"Only five! I knew Minnie liked us!" Sirius whispered to James, who couldn't help but snort again.

McGonagall noticed their exchange. "I cannot believe you two! Not only can you not control yourselves in my class, but also while you are being punished! I don't understand how such reckless and disrespectful children as yourselves can be such intelligent students. If only you would put your priorities in the right places."Another faint smile traced her lips. "You all may go."

James and Sirius started to leave the room, but Peter lagged behind. "Professor, I was wondering if, if, if," he stuttered.

"You were wondering what, Peter?"

"If I was still eligible for the extra credit you said I could have if I had perfect attendance?" Peter asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry Peter. But you have not attended every class." Peter looked crestfallen. "I'm sure that your friends will be able to help you pass my class, and that by the end of the year you will not need the credit." With that McGonagall patted him on the shoulder and turned away.

*******1*******

"Only five points! Man, you guys got off easy!" Remus laughed.

"We've got all the teachers under our fingers! I told you they loved us!" James gloated.

"NO WAY! NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY!" Sirius yelled as he jumped up and down over to his two friends in the common room. The other Gryffindors were giving him strange looks, but they had started to grow used to the first year's strange personalities.

"What what what what what?" Remus replied expectantly.

"First year flying lessons are this Saturday!" Sirius practically screamed.

James jumped up and yelled, "NO WAY! No way no way no way!"

"I KNOW!" They kept screaming and jumping up and down like little girls. Remus watched them with an amused expression on his face.

After a few minutes, a crestfallen Peter entered through the portrait hole. "Hey guys," he said, sitting next to Remus in an arm chair.

"Why the long face Peter?" James asked.

"Yeah! How could anybody be sad when-," Sirius started.

"FLYING LESSONS ARE SATURDAY!" They yelled together.

"You guys do know they are with the Slytherins, right?" Remus asked, having checked the bulletin board.

"Of course! It's the perfect opportunity to show them how much better we are than them!"

For the rest of the week, flying was all anyone could talk about. The muggle-borns were more quiet than usual, having no exciting flying adventures to tell. Elaborate stories about nearly being caught by Muggles, beating grown wizards in races, and being good enough already to make a professional team.

On Saturday at 11 o'clock, the Gryffindors stepped out on the grounds for their flying lesson. The Slytherins and the instructor, Madam Hooch were already there, waiting. About twenty broomsticks were neatly lined up in two rows on the grass.

"Nice of you all to show up!" She barked, closely resembling a hawk. "Everybody stand to the left of a broomstick! Quickly now!"

The broomsticks were in bad condition. Twigs stuck out at odd angles from each one. The handles had indentions as if they had been beaten against a tree. Some even had singed edges as if in previous years they had been caught on fire.

"Do exactly as I tell you! Stick your right hand over your broom," instructed Madam Hooch from the front, "and say UP!"

"UP!" everyone shouted.

James' and Sirius' shot straight into their hands. Remus' made a small jump, but barely came up to his knees. Peter's hadn't moved at all. Snape's shot up and hit him in the face, much to James' and Sirius' amusement. Lily's started to spark and almost caught fire. Alice's came up to her hands after her second command. After a few minutes, and a lot of saying "UP!" everyone had their broomsticks in hand, and were waiting patiently for Madam Hooch to continue their lesson.

Madam Hooch showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. James was thrilled to be told that his was perfect and boasted about it loudly so that Snape and the other Slytherins could hear.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly."

Thirty minutes later they entered the castle, faces flushed from the wind. Although they had only hovered a few feet in the air, they were excited with the promise to fly around the Quidditch Pitch at their next lesson in two weeks.

**Sorry this was so late! I was at camp, which was… awesome! Sorry this was short, and definitely not my favorite chapter. I would really love a review, I barely have any. Thank you so much DarthAbby for reviewing last chapter! **

**Please Review!  
>-Pixie97<strong>


	8. Of Hair and Sparkles

**Disclaimer: Same as all the others.**

"Come on Peter! Just try!" James pleaded. James had been trying to teach Peter the Reparo charm for the past hour and so far there wasn't much progress.

"I am! The tea cup just won't go back to together!" Peter protested.

"This is why I gave up an hour ago!" Sirius, who was reading a magazine on the couch across from them, commented.

"You never started helping!" James accused. "What _are_ you doing anyway?"

"Reading _The Quibbler_," Sirius replied, holding up the front of the magazine for them to see. "It's got the weirdest articles! I mean, what the hell is a Nargle? But who cares!"

"You are one strange eleven year old!" James said. "Alright, back to work! Just flick your wand at the teacup and say Reparo! Like you really want it fixed!"

"Reparo! Reparo!" Peter started hitting the teacup pieces with his wand, causing them to catch fire.

"Whoa, whoa!" James quickly started putting it out with his hat.

"I think the only reason we have hats is to put out the fires we accidently start," came a voice from behind them.

"I completely agree with you Remus," Sirius said. "REMUS!"

"Remmy! You're back!" James jumped up.

"Oh hey Remus! I'm having a lot of trouble with the Reparo charm!" Peter said.

"Try imagining the teacup as whole again when you say the spell," Remus suggested.

"Blimey, Remus, you look awful!" James exclaimed, taking in his friends appearance. Remus had deep circles under his eyes, giving him the impression he had been punched in both eyes not too long ago. He had a long, thin scratch on his right jaw, and bandages on his hands. The rest of him was covered up by his robes, so they couldn't see anything else.

"Yeah, what happened? You look like you went to hell and back!" Sirius added.

"My family's bloody owl attacked me. It never liked me and didn't appreciate me being back. Its claws scratched up my hands and gave me this cut on my jaw. Don't worry, I stopped by the Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey wrapped up my hands and put some salve on my chin, it'll fade and disappear in a few days," Remus shrugged sitting down in an armchair. Then he added, "I haven't had much sleep at the hospital."

"So, how's your mum doing?" James asked cautiously. Remus had been gone for the past few days since his mom was in a hospital (which they were told are Muggle versions of St. Mungos).

"She's okay. They said she can go home in a few days; she just has to go in for treatment every few weeks." Remus looked down awkwardly. He hated lying to his friends, especially when he had to make up a lie about his mother. He knew he had no other choice though. If his friends ever found out about his lycanthropy, they would hate him and never talk to him again. It was better to have this 'friendship' that he had and lie than be alone and hated.

"That's good. It really sucks that your mom got this cancer thing that Muggles have right after your aunt died." Sirius said. "To cheer you up, I feel that we should prank-,"

"I DID IT! Remus! James! Sirius! I did it! I fixed the teacup!" Peter cried, waving a teacup above his head.

"Good job Peter!"

"Let me see it!" Sirius held out his hand. When Peter gave it to him, he looked at it in his palm for a second before throwing it into the opposite wall, where it shattered. Ignoring the looks from his house mates he said to Peter, "Now do it again, so we know it wasn't a fluke."

"That wasn't very nice!" Remus reprimanded.

"Well, Sirius does have a point. What if he just got lucky? If Peter fixes it again, we'll know that all my hard work paid off!" James reasoned, lounging back on the couch next to Sirius.

"I did it again! I DID IT AGAIN!" Peter was practically skipping with excitement.

"Now, to celebrate Peter's accomplishment and cheer Remus up, I think we should plan a big prank on the whole school! Or, at least the Slytherins! Any ideas?" Sirius asked.

"We should discuss it over food. TO THE KITCHENS!" James declared. Once the four boys were sitting around a table piled with their favorite treats and tarts, they began giving out prank ideas.

"We could let a bunch of boggarts loose in the Great Hall for Halloween!"

"No, they would get confused with that amount of people."

"What if we put love potion in all of the Slytherins' drinks? Or the teachers' drinks?"

"None of us are advanced enough in potions to know how to make a Love Potion."

They kept shooting out ideas and finding something wrong with each one. Thirty minutes, a hundred prank ideas, and four pies later, they still had nothing.

"What about dying all of the Slytherins hair pink?"

"Peter, that's so lame. It's like a beginner level prank!" Sirius dismissed.

"Well, this is our first prank. We probably should start out small and work our way up! Plus, think how funny the Slytherins would look with bubblegum pink hair!" Remus reasoned.

"I agree with Remus. We need to test the waters before we jump in and do a high level prank. We could do different neon colors and added sparkles and such! Great idea Peter!" James gushed, eyes alight with excitement.

"Okay, so it's not too bad of an idea. But how are we going to do it? It would take an awful lot of spells!" Sirius ceded.

"A simple hair color changing potion would work! We just brew it up and then inject it into toffees and put them on Slytherin table! To keep from them being suspicious, we could put regular toffees on the other tables!"

The rest of the day up until dinner was spent going over plans for 'Operation Rainbow Hair.' Remus would work on making the potion during Potions class when he finished that day's assignment. They were making three different colors, bubblegum pink, lime green, and neon yellow. Whenever they visited the kitchens they made sure to ask the house elves for toffees, knowing they would need a lot. One time, Peter slipped on some butter in the kitchen, and made a comical feet-over-head fall, dropping hundreds of toffee. They also rigged Gambol's Multi-Color, Extra Sticky Sparkles to fall from the ceiling over the Slytherins during dessert.

The boys were almost afraid that their potion wouldn't be ready by Halloween since Remus had to go home to visit his mum the Friday before Halloween, causing him to miss a potions class. Luckily, Sirius was decent at Potions and was able to finish up the last few things that needed to be done. After injecting the potion into a fourth of the toffees, all they had left to do was set it up.

On the night before Halloween, James, Sirius, and Peter (Remus had come back very tired and in worse condition than he had the time before) crept silently to the Great Hall, on the lookout for Pringle, teachers, and Peeves. They used a levitation charm similar to Wingardium Leviosa to keep the sparkles high in the air. This charm would keep them levitated until they muttered a counter charm on it, making them fall onto the unsuspecting, neon hair Slytherins. They would have to wait until their break to put out the toffees so that everyone could eat them at dinner. The boys snuck back to bed, but could barely sleep in excitement for their first big prank.

James, Sirius, and Peter slept throughout classes that day. They hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and this, they told Remus, was the perfect way to catch up and look innocent. Remus knew there was no changing their minds and made an extra set of notes for them to copy.

"Why do you do it Remus?" Lily asked him as they left lunch together that day. They had grown to be friends since they see each other so much in the library, despite how much she disliked his 'rude and obnoxious friends.'

"Do what?"

"Let them copy your work. You've been making an extra set of notes just for them today while they have their 'all-day naptime!'" She said incredulously.

"I don't always let them copy. Sometimes I make them do it, then I read through and correct what was wrong," at her skeptical look, he added, "Plus, when I go visit my mum they always make an extra set of notes for me. So I guess this is me returning the favor."

"That's different. You aren't actually in class when they make notes for you!" Lily sighed. "I don't get it. Just make sure they are worth being friends with. I wouldn't have chosen them."

******1******

The Great Hall looked spectacular. The only light was from the giant jack-o-lanterns that filled the empty spots in the room and a few dim candles on the tables. The ceiling was a stormy, with lightning cracking every few minutes, despite the fact that it was partly cloudy outside. To the young Gryffindors delight, the toffees were sprinkled across the tables, just as they had left them not long before.

It started off with only a few people, but as more students finished their meal, more started eating toffee. Even though the hall was so dark, the luminous new hair colors could be seen easily. The Slytherins' hair was turning from yellow to pink to green to pink to green to yellow with each toffee they ate. Screams of seeing their housemates' hair change color were emitted from the Slytherin table. In the midst of the confusion, they did not realize that it changed with the candy they were eating, and as a result, they kept on eating the hundreds of toffee on the table.

Upon seeing the rainbow of neon hair, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter burst out laughing. They were joined by the rest of the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws. The teachers were thoroughly confused and rushed over to calm the panicking students.

"Sirius, do you think Snivellus looks better in yellow or green?" James said to his friend laughing.

"I dunno, I think the lime green really goes with his eyes!" Sirius said between laughs.

"Really? I think that the bubblegum pink looks just lovely on him!" Remus said, in a fake serious voice.

"James! Some of the Slytherins are leaving!" Peter stopped laughing to point to some of the fleeing students.

"Quick! Remus! Release the sparkles!"

Remus muttered a spell under his breath and suddenly a thick cloud of multi-color sparkles rained down from the storming ceiling.

This only added to the confusion and after a few more minutes of chaos, Dumbledore stood up from the High Table and yelled, "SILENCE!" Immediately, the whole hall swiveled silently to look through the dim lighting at their headmaster. He then muttered a few words and suddenly the ceiling turned into a bright, sunny day, lighting up the Great Hall.

The Slytherins looked hilarious with their neon hair and doused with multi color sparkles that they couldn't brush off. Upon seeing this, the four boys burst into laughter again, along with half of the other students, despite Dumbledore's orders.

"SILENCE!" After a few firecrackers from the headmaster's wand, he finally had everyone's attention.

"If the Slytherins would follow their head of house to their common room, I am told that he has the counter potion and will be happy to give it to you." Dumbledore waited until all of the grumbling sparkle covered students had exited the hall. "Now, would anyone like to take credit for what happened tonight?" Not one student made a move to accept the responsibility and punishment. "I didn't think so," he looked straight at the four boys, eyes twinkling. "Well, that was an interesting Halloween. I fear they get a little boring around here sometimes. You are all dismissed!"

James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter entered their dormitory laughing.

"That was bloody brilliant!"

"I can't believe we pulled it off!"

"Did you see Snivellus' hair?"

"What about Bellatrix's? I should start dying it pink when she comes to visit!"

Later that night when they all climbed into their beds, Remus said softly, "I wish there was a way we could have claimed the credit without getting detention."

"Yeah, if only everybody would just _know _it was us, but there would be no proof so we couldn't get punished," Peter added.

"There is! All we have to do is keep doing pranks! We'll get caught for _some_ and some we won't but no matter what, everybody will know that it's _us_ doing them!" Sirius enthused.

"Then everybody will bow down at the feet of the Marauders and their fabulous pranks!" James declared.

"The who?" Peter asked.

"The Marauders! That first night that McGonagall caught me and Sirius,"

"Proper grammar is 'Sirius and I',"

"Whatever Rem. Anyway, when she caught us out at night, she told us that she didn't want her new Gryffindors marauding around all the time! Don't you think that it's perfect?" James asked.

"The Marauders," Sirius said, testing it out. "I like it! That way we are like an elite group of students that everyone envies!"

"I don't know if I want to be envied," Remus admitted. "Because if you're envied, you're also hated!"

"Well that ship has sailed! Some of the Slytherins already hate us. Snape does. My whole family hates me. All there's left to do now is embrace the hate and make them envy! Show them that you are better!" Sirius declared.

"I guess."

"To the Marauders!" James announced.

"To the Marauders!" was his reply three times.

**Kind of a sloppy chapter, I wrote it and edited it in two days. I just wanted to get another update out quickly! I'm sorry I haven't updated sooner, right after my last update I had a family emergency so I couldn't update and then right after that I went to New York. But I'm back, I have a week until school starts, and I plan on updating again before that! **

**Thanks so much to DarthAbby and XSummerxKissesX for your reviews! Please review!**

**-Pixie97**


	9. Of Skipping and Birthdays

**Disclaimer: I own nothing…**

"I can't believe Gryffindor lost!" James shook his head as he walked away from a crowd of cheering Slytherins.

"We were slaughtered! We didn't even score! I don't think I can stand the shame!" Sirius replied.

"Pickins is the only decent Chaser we've got and he doesn't have any help from the rest of the team! At least Melanie Lace is a good Keeper. She only let in a third of the Slytherins shots!" James said.

"That's why Lace is captain. Oh look, something greasy this way comes!" Sirius looked over James' shoulder towards Snape, who was approaching them with a gloating smile on his face.

"How'd you like losing 210-0? Maybe that'll deflate your big heads! It's just another thing Slytherins are better at than Gryffindors," Snape sneered.

"Oh yeah? Just wait until next year when I'm on the team! I'll single handily _crush _you!" Sirius shot back angrily.

"What are you talking about, mate? Snivelly here won't be on the team! All of his grease would just make him slide off the broom!" James snickered.

"You watch it Potter! I'll-,"

"Is there a problem here, boys?" A sharp voice came from behind them.

They spun around to see Professor McGonagall looking down at them pointedly.

"No, Professor!" All three chorused.

"Move along then,"

"I hate that kid," Sirius muttered to James as they walked away.

"Same here. C'mon, let's catch up with Peter and Remus!"

******1******

"I don't wanna!"

"SIRIUS BLACK! Get your lazy bum out of bed! We have classes today!" James shouted in exasperation.

"I say we leave him!" Peter suggested. "At this rate, we're going to miss breakfast!"

"I've got this," Remus approached Sirius' bed with his wand out. "Aguamenti!" A blast of water shot out of his wand, hitting Sirius' face with an incredible force.

"Bloody hell! Alright! Alright! You win, I'll get up!" Sirius, who was drenched, got out of bed slowly. "Blimey, Rem! How much pressure was that?"

"Not sure. I don't think it's supposed to be that much, but that was my first time using it. It's a sixth year charm, I found it a couple of days ago in an advanced charms book. It says that a clear stream of water should come out, so I guess I don't have it quite right."

"Practicing a sixth year charm on my face?" Sirius muttered. "Ugh, couldn't' you guys just have let me skip?"

"Of course not! It's a scheduled school day, therefore we must go to class! If it wasn't, I'd be happy to let you sleep in, you lazy bum!" Remus scolded.

"That's not a bad idea!" James exclaimed, a mischievous gleam in his eye.

"Uh, sorry? What's not a bad idea?" His roommates questioned him.

"We could have a 'skip' day! A school-wide skip day! Where all the students skip their lessons!" James explained excitedly.

"I like it! Let's make it sometime this week!" Sirius agreed.

"What about Thursday? We have Potions Thursday and I know I'd like to skip that!" Peter suggested.

"I think more people would do it on a Friday since its closer to the weekend."

"Whoa, hold up!" Remus, always the rational one said, "How are all of the students going to know? If we announce it in public, say at dinner, the teachers will just shoot it down!"

"We could make posters and ask the house elves to post them on all of the bulletin boards!" James suggested.

That day during afternoon break they entered the kitchens with four identical posters that they had created during their free period. They looked like:

**ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS OF HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY:**

**This Friday, November 12****th****, 1971 is:**

**STUDENT SKIP DAY!**

**In this school-wide event, you will blow off all of your classes for the day and do whatever you please instead!**

***Please keep in mind that teachers are not to be informed of this, and anything they say against Student Skip Day is to be ignored!**

**We look forward to your participation! **

**Sincerely, The Marauders**

Then, in miniscule writing at the bottom, it said:

_**The Marauders are not responsible for any punishments or consequences of any kind you may receive if you choose to participate! And don't be a grumpy prat! Let loose and sleep in!**_

"Master James! Master Sirius! Master Remus! Master Peter! What can Quark do for you?" chirped a plump house elf as soon as they entered the kitchens.

"We were wondering if you could do us a small favor," Sirius started.

"Of course, Master Sirius! What do you need Quark to do?" His big eyes looked up excitedly.

"We were hoping that you could put up these posters on the common room bulletin boards tonight when you light the fires. It would be so great if you could do that for us!" Sirius asked, stressing the importance.

"Quark would be delighted to, Master Sirius! It'll be no problem at all! Is there anything else Quark could do for you?" said the eager house elf as he took the posters from Remus' hands.

"Yes, please. Could I have a fruit cake?" Peter asked.

"I'll have an apple pie!" James added.

"A chocolate cake sounds really nice right now!" Put in Remus.

"And some pudding for me, Quark!" Finished Sirius.

******1******

The next morning, the common room was buzzing. There was a new sign on the bulletin board about a 'skip day'. They'd never had one before. Should they skip? Would they get in trouble? Who were the Marauders? The four boy's grins couldn't have been wider.

******1******

It was nearly halfway through first block with the four boys stumbled into the Great Hall for breakfast Friday morning. To their delight, what looked like two thirds of the student body was still in there, eating breakfast late as if it were a weekend, not a school day. The Marauders had asked the house elves if they could keep serving breakfast through the morning like they did on weekends, and not to the boys' surprise, they were happy to.

"This is brilliant!" James said happily, buttering his toast.

"I know! We should have one every year!" Peter agreed, grinning.

"I can't believe there aren't any teachers in here! I would've thought they'd come looking when no one from the class shows up!" Remus said incredulously.

"About half of the Ravenclaws it looks like went. No surprise there. And hey James, your goody two shoes girlfriend went!" Sirius said jokingly.

"Who?"

"Evans! She's not here and there's no doubt in my mind that she went." Sirius said.

"She's _not_ my girlfriend!" James snapped, his face flushed.

"Actually, Lily's still asleep," Alice said from her seat a few places down.

"What? You've got to be joking!" Sirius said in disbelief.

"You know, Lily's not that bad. She's like me. Smart, but has a rebellious streak in her!" Remus defended his other friend.

"Yeah, you don't know what you're talking about!" James said dreamily.

"And neither do you mate! You barely know her and I swear you're in love with her!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"Oh, be quiet! Don't make me rather be in class!" Peter said, putting his hands over his ears.

******1*******

"Before dinner begins tonight, I would like to address the attendance issue we experienced today," McGonagall started, standing in front of the High Table, her gaze sweeping across the students as if looking for guilty faces.

"According to the few who _did_ show up to class, there was a note on the common room bulletin boards declaring today a 'school wide skip day.'" She paused. "I don't know why any of you would think such a thing exists. You come to Hogwarts to learn, and in order to do that you must go to your classes. If anyone does not wish to attend their classes anymore, stand up now and we can arrange a train home for you this weekend." No one stood up. "Alright. Then those of you who skipped will have late credit on all work they missed today or was due today. You will have to talk with your teachers to find out what you missed and how to make it up." Then she turned swiftly and returned to her seat.

Professor Dumbledore stood up from his seat and said in a soft voice, "I'm sure the four young gentlemen who created the posters would be kind enough to stay after dinner tonight." He looked right at the Marauders as if he knew it was them. "Now let us eat!" Instantly the empty serving plates filled with food.

"How'd he know it was us?" Peter asked.

"The house elves probably told him," Remus replied. "If he asks, they have to tell him. Besides, it's not like we told Quark it was a secret."

They were still sitting at the Gryffindor table, chatting as they waited for the hall to empty out. Finally it was just them, Dumbledore, and McGonagall.

"Detention! All four of you have detention!' McGonagall snapped.

"Professor!"

"That's completely unfair!"

"Unfair? How is it unfair? You encouraged students to miss their classes today! Some of them have OWLs and NEWTs this year! Did you care about that? Everyone has much to learn before winter break and I will not have _my_ students telling others to blow of classes! We give you two days a week to do whatever you want!" McGonagall took a deep breath.

"I still don't see why _we_ get detention and not everybody else!"

"And why not, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked quietly, as if he were truly interested.

"Well, sir, we only suggested that people skip their classes, we didn't force them! All students are allowed to post things onto the bulletin boards. We merely gave an idea, and lots of people followed it. If we are punished, it should be for _us_ skipping _our_ classes, not for _everyone _skipping _their _classes. That was their own decision! We should receive the same punishment as everyone else!" James reasoned.

"Now, Minerva, I think he made a very good point. What do you say?"

She sighed in defeat. "I suppose. But I don't want this happening again! You will be punished if it does. You may go to bed."

"Wow, James! You can talk us out of anything!" Peter exclaimed on their way up to the dormitory.

"Yeah, can you talk me out of that essay due on my birthday?" Sirius asked jokingly.

The other boys stopped dead. "Your birthday?" Remus asked. "When is it?"

Sirius nodded. "It's next Friday, the 19th."

"Blimey, mate! Why didn't you tell us it was coming up?" James asked.

"I didn't want you guys to make a big deal about it. Forget I said anything."

The next morning when Sirius was in the shower, James called the other two boys over to his bed. "We got to do something special for Sirius' birthday!"

*******1******

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

I WANT TO DO SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR YOU!

IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND YOUR SPECIAL TOO!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!"

Sirius opened his eyes slowly to see his three roommates hovering over him, singing at the top of their lungs. He smiled and sat up in bed. His curtains were drawn and he could see luminous balloons floating around casting colorful glows on the walls and floor.

"Has any one told you how bad of singers you guys are?" He joked.

"Nonsense! You're just jealous!" James smiled. "Happy birthday mate!"

"Happy birthday Sirius!" Remus added.

"Happy birthday! Now it's time for presents!" Peter chirped, referring to the pile at the bottom of his bed.

For Sirius' twelfth birthday, he received an Auto-Answer Quill from James (which Remus did not approve of), a pack of Ever-Bashing Boomerangs from Peter, Self-Shuffling Playing Cards from Remus, a Foe Glass from Regulus, and a Black Crest that he could pin on his robes from his parents.

"Not going to be needing this," Sirius said, tossing the crest into the trash can by the door. "Thanks guys, you're the best!"

"Don't thank us yet! We still have one more surprise for you!" Remus replied. "You have to get dressed first,"

The three boys left Sirius to get ready for their showers. Sirius' smile faded and he looked again at the present from Regulus. There was no letter with it, just "_From Regulus_." Sirius sighed. He had a feeling his brother was mad at him for being in Gryffindor. He would have to talk to him during the holidays since Regulus didn't answer his letter in the beginning of the year.

"Merlin and Mordred! Look at breakfast!" Sirius exclaimed when he entered the Great Hall. Instead of the usual porridge, eggs, bacon, and biscuits they had during the week, the serving plates were piled with various cakes, cookies, brownies, pies, puddings, and assorted sweets.

His friends were grinning as they sat down. "We may have asked the house elves to make the meals today a little bit different. Hungry?"

"Definitely!" Sirius replied, taking a bite of a molten chocolate cake, "Mmmmmm,"

**A shorter chapter than usual, but I didn't want to drag it out. Like? Hate? In between? Please review!**

**Thank you to FatallyUnique and DarthAbby for reviewing! They make me smile every time!**

**-Pixie97**


	10. Of Holidays and Cloaks

**Yes, I realize it's been…well very long. But I'm back and writing, so review please? Sorry its not a very exciting chapter, but I have a good idea for the next one!**

"There are my parents. Don't they look lovely?" Sirius asked, nodding to an uptight couple standing off to the side. The Hogwarts Express had just pulled into King's Cross to let off the students going home for Christmas break.

"I don't think _lovely_ would be the word I would use to describe them…" James trailed. "But I'm sure they're not that bad!"

"You don't know them," Sirius muttered under his breath. After the four Marauders said their goodbyes and wished each other a Happy Christmas, Sirius made his way over to his parents. No sooner had he approached them did Orion grab his arm and apparate to Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

_Smack!_

"Gryffindor?" _Smack!_ "Disgusting filth!" _Smack!_ "Disgraceful boy!" _Smack!_ "Get out of my sight!" Walburga Black screeched. Sirius, happy to oblige, ascended the stairs and shut himself in his room. He hadn't expected anything different. He lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling while the throbbing faded until someone knocked on his door.

"Come in," Sirius called.

Regulus came in silently. For a while they just sat there, not saying anything, until Sirius could no longer stand it. "Go ahead and say it Regulus."

"How could you do this to me, Sirius? I thought we agreed to be in Slytherin together!"

Sirius sighed. "You don't understand," he began.

"Don't tell me what I do or don't understand!" Regulus screamed. "I understand that you care more about upsetting Mum and Dad than you do about me! Gryffindors are selfish and reckless, JUST LIKE YOU. You belong in Gryffindor. I hope you're happy!"

"That's not true, Reggie!"

"Don't call me that!" the younger brother snapped.

"Regulus, don't think that. You don't get to choose which house you get put into! A hat sorts you into whichever you will fit in best with. And I guess the hat thought I had more bravado in me than git. Thank Merlin for that!" Sirius added.

"Stop it! Stop it Sirius! Stop insulting Slytherin and your family! I can't stand you!" Regulus stood up. "You're a selfish prick! Just leave me alone this break!" He added before storming out.

Sirius sighed and put his hand in his knees. The rest of his Christmas break passed slowly. He stayed in his room for the most part, only leaving to get food or use the bathroom. On Christmas morning he was awoken by Walburga.

"Get up! I don't have time for this, GET UP!" She shook him awake. When she saw his eyes open, she kept talking. "Your cousins will be over for dinner tonight. I expect you to wear dress robes and to be in your best behavior! Don't screw this up!"

"Happy Christmas to you too," he muttered, sitting up. He remarkably brightened when he saw a small pile of presents at the bottom of his bed. He had sent his out the day before with his owl and snuck Regulus' into his room the night before. He got Regulus a broomstick servicing kit, certain that he would receive the newest broom from their parents for Christmas. He and Regulus used to get a broomstick every year; that is until Sirius fell out of favor of his parents.

He had given James cauldron cakes and fudge, Peter licorice wands, and Remus chocolate frogs. In return, James had given him fireworks and dung bombs, Peter gave him a Gryffindor poster, and Remus the Beater's Bible. There was also a case of Butterbeer from Regulus, and various Slytherin items from his parents.

He immediately threw the Slytherin accessories into the bottom of his closet and got to work hanging up the Gryffindor poster over his bed. He cast a permanent sticking charm on it to ensure its longevity on his wall.

In a much better mood, he coasted through dinner that night with a polite indifference to everything; even engaging in conversation with Andromeda and Uncle Al. The rest of break passed similarly to the first, although he now had a decent book to read and kept in contact with James via owl post.

********1*******

Sirius was the first of the Marauders at Platform 9 ¾ on January 1st. His parents hadn't even bothered escorting him; instead Kreacher had apparated him to the station. Sirius waited half an hour until Remus finally arrived, and fifteen minutes later, James and Peter did as well. They boarded the train together, eagerly talking about their holiday.

"Okay guys, you'll never believe what my dad gave me for Christmas!" James exclaimed, pulling out a silver cloak. He thought back to when he first got it.

-Flashback to Christmas Day-

The highlight of James' break was by far Christmas morning. Even without the lavish breakfast prepared by Mrs. Potter, or the numerous presents under the gigantic tree, it was the best Christmas ever. His father had pulled him aside after he had opened all of the presents from his parents.

"Son, this is something that has been passed father to son in the Potter family for generations. I trust that you will use it well and take good care of it while you are at Hogwarts," his father said to him, handing him a light package.

James took it and tore the wrapping paper off, excited. Inside he found a silver cloak. A bit disappointed, he held it up and tried it on. Immediately his entire body, except for his head, vanished before his eyes. He laughed aloud. "What is this?" he asked. "An invisibility cloak?"

Mr. Potter nodded. "The Potter Family invisibility cloak. I found great use of it in my years at Hogwarts, and even after. I'm sure you will too. Merry Christmas James!"

-End of Flashback-

"What is that?" Sirius asked, clearly unimpressed.

"Go ahead, try it on!" James urged. Sirius obliged, and immediately his body disappeared.

"Woah!"

"What happened to your body?"

"BLOODY HELL!"

Three voices exclaimed. James just grinned.

"Blimey James, did you get an invisibility cloak?" Remus asked in astonishment. "They're incredibly rare!"

"Sure did! Think of all the great pranks we can pull now! And we can explore the castle for secret passages without getting caught! It's perfect!"

"Want to go try it out?" Sirius asked.

"What do you have in mind?"

"How about we give our good friend Snivelly a visit?"

James exclaimed "YES!" the same time Remus responded "NO!"

"What Remmy? Why not?" Sirius asked.

"We cannot go sneak up on Snape and jinx him! It's the holiday season, don't you have some sense of peace?"

"Not for Snape!" Sirius stated. "C'mon!"

"No!"

"Whatever, Sirius, let him stay here. Peter, you coming?" James asked.

"Um, um," replied Peter, who had been watching Remus and Sirius like a tennis match. "I don't know. Remus does make a good point!"

"Oh come on Pettigrew! Get a spine! Stop doing whatever Remus does and make your own decisions for once!" said Sirius angrily.

"Enough, Sirius!" James intervened, seeing Peter's broken expression. "You two can stay here; we will be back in a few minutes. Let's go!" He threw the cloak over himself and Sirius and the vanished from sight.

The two boys crept down the train, checking the compartments for the first year Slytherin. On the third car they finally found him, sitting with Lily Evans, and two burly Slytherins, Mulciber and Avery. The door was cracked ever so slightly, just enough for an invisible wand to slip through.

"What should we do?" James asked.

"I've got an idea!" Sirius quickly whispered his plan to James. Then he cast a sticking charm on the three Slytherins' bottoms, gluing them to the seats.

The two boys crept back down the train, stifling their snickers. Once they reentered their compartment, they couldn't contain their laughter anymore.

Finally Remus broke up their laughter saying, "Alright, alright. What did you two do?"

'"Well, they-,"

"He means Snape, Mulciber, and Avery-,"

"Were just sitting there-,"

"With Evans-,"

"And we decided to glue them to their seats-,"

"So when they get up they won't be able to-,"

"And it'll end up ripping their robes, and trousers just to get off the seats!"

"Plus they're sitting right in the middle of the train-,"

"So maximum number of people will witness their humiliation!"

The two boys interrupted each other and told their story as one. Peter snickered, imagining it his head, while Remus pursed his lips.

"You'll see, Remus! It's going to be hilarious!" James promised.

And indeed it was. The three Slytherins played it to the full comedic effect. When they discovered they couldn't get up, Lily immediately pulled Snape, until he finally was free. Then they turned their attention to helping the other two. The grunting and panting attracted attention, and a good number of students crowded around. Best of all, each one of them had lost their robe and pant bottoms, allowing everyone a glimpse at their tighty whiteys.

All four Marauders guffawed as they watched, even more so when Snape spotted them and flushed even more.

"Okay," Remus laughed, catching his breath as they entered the castle. "That was actually pretty good!"

"I am going have to disagree with you on that one, Mr. Lupin," came a stern and very annoyed voice from behind them. "Ten points from Gryffindor, each! And you all will serve separate detentions every day for two weeks. Meet me in my office after 4th period starting tomorrow."

"Here we go again," James muttered they turned around to see their Head of House.

**I'm sorry its been so long. I've just had writers block, a busy year, and not much encouragement. Which is why I would like to thank Misty2012 for your review. It got me back into writing! I hated abandoning this story, and now that summer is starting, I'll update more! Please review!**


	11. Of Mentors and Operations

Life after holiday break was pretty quiet, for a time. The four boys decided not to stir up trouble while they served out their detentions. Classes resumed, Quidditch was played, and Remus still made his monthly trips home to see his sick mother. Hogwarts was…peaceful, almost. Some would consider it too peaceful. That someone's name would be Sirius Black.

"I'M BORRRED!" Sirius complained one night in the common room as the Marauders worked on their homework. No one responded. "I'm borrrrrred!" He moaned again. "Jamie? Remie? Pete?" He gave a pair of killer puppy dog eyes to each of them.

"Maybe if we ignore him, he'll just go away," Remus whispered to James.

"That's what I'm going to do!" James whispered back, continuing to write his essay.

Sirius sighed. Then moaned. Then sighed again. And again. And again.

Peter slammed his book shut with great annoyance. "Okay, Sirius. What do you want?"

The boy in question immediately smiled. "Oh, good! For a second there I thought you couldn't hear me!"

"Wish we couldn't hear him," James muttered to Remus, who snorted.

"Aren't you just_ bored_?" Sirius whined.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, Sirius! Yes, we are bored. But I'm not doing homework over the weekend, but if you want to, by all means, do whatever you want!" James said exasperated.

"I'm not bored," Remus stated.

"What would you rather do?" Peter asked.

"Anything! Everything!" Sirius exclaimed. "Don't you just want to get up and cause some mayhem?"

"All day, every day!" exclaimed two identical heads that popped up from either side of the couches they were sitting on.

Fourth year identical twins, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, plopped down in the chairs across from the first years.

"And that kind of attitude is exactly what we need to pull off our greatest prank of the year!" added Gideon.

"You guys are pranksters too?" Sirius asked excitedly.

"Of course!" The twins looked offended. "We just happen to work more with causing distress to the older population of this fine establishment!" Gideon defended.

"Now we are aware of your endeavors, and we would just like to say you lot show a great deal of potential!" Fabian added.

"Which is why we would like to inquire your assistance in our prank this weekend! It might help solve a certain young color's problem," Gideon winked at Mr. Black.

"Alright, what's the plan?" James asked, eagerly.

And suddenly homework was forgotten as the six boys put their heads together and planned out their next great prank.

*****1******

"Three, two, one, split!" With that Operation Night Havoc was underway.

The six boys broke off into pairs to do their specific job in the prank. Fabian and Peter were in charge of charming all the staircases to become slippery slides and end in a pit of foam blocks. Sirius and Remus were responsible of blacking out all the windows of the castle to prevent daylight from coming in in the morning. Gideon and James were supposed to make life worse for the Slytherins in any way possible.

"The spell is '_cuniculum pelvo_,'" Fabian explained to Peter. "Got that?"

"Cuniculum pelvo. Cuniculum pelvo. Cuniculum pelvo. I'm ready!"

"Alright, while you work on transforming the staircases, I'm going to conjure foam blocks at the bottom," Fabian started to walk away, but stopped to add, "Normally there are less teachers are out at this hour, but stay on your guard!"

Peter nodded fervently and got to work. It would take him a few tries to go over and successfully turn them into slides, but by the time he was sliding down to the bottom, Fabian had already created a good sized pile of foam for him to land in. Fabian would cast one last spell on the now-slide staircase, and then they would get to work on the next staircase. Fabian explained to Peter he was casting a 12 hour spell lock on the staircase, which meant in the morning even the teachers wouldn't be able to change them back into stairs until the lock wore off.

"Wicked!" Peter exclaimed. "Not even Dumbledore?"

"I'm sure Dumbledore could easily overpower the lock, but, between you and me, I don't think he will! He's rather fond of practical jokes as long as they don't cause harm to students," Fabian confessed.

When the two boys were on probably number 89 of the 142 staircases of Hogwarts, Peter heard it. The unmistakable sound of a teacher walking down the adjacent corridor.

"Pst! Fabian! Someone's coming! Someone's coming!" Peter tried to get Fabian's attention. The older student immediately perked up, with eyes that resembled a deer caught in the headlights. Fabian quickly recovered and dashed up the stairs and pulled Peter behind a statue.

"Don't say a word!" He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked to be a can. When the footsteps rounded the corner, Fabian pressed down on the can and sprayed a foggy substance into the face of the teacher. Immediately the man, who they identified as Professor Slughorn, slumped down onto the floor, unconscious.

"What did you do?" Peter asked, starting to rush forward.

"Wait!" Fabian held him back and pulled out a different can from his robes it. "I need to clear the air!" The other can released a fresh, flowery scent into the air. "Now you're good!"

"What _was_ that?" Peter asked.

"Knockout gas. Similar to a muggle product, but Gideon and I reinforced it with a small memory charm, so the person affected won't know what happened to them when they wake up. Then the other gas clears the air so we won't be knocked out too."

"Wicked!" Peter exclaimed, "Although I doubt Professor Slughorn would agree with me!"

"C'mon, help me lift him up to take him to the other end of the corridor," Fabian said, grabbing the Potions Master's arms. As soon as they had carried him to a bench and set him down, they got back to work.

"That was close!" Peter exclaimed. "I thought we were going to get caught!"

"Oh, young grasshopper, I never get caught!"

********1*******

"How are we going to do this?" Remus asked, staring up at the last windows left untouched in the castle.

"I have no clue!" Sirius declared. "I was hoping _you_ had some ideas!"

Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were standing below the grand windows above the huge doors of the main entrance way. They had been going to each of the windows in the castle, not that there were many, and painting them black with their wands. A simple spell emitted a black paint from the wands, something that could be easily cleaned, by hand not magic, that is.

"Are you _sure_ there isn't a spell that can make the paint shoot out farther from our wands?" Sirius asked for the fifth time. "You read all the time, surely there's _something_!"

"Positive. I'm sorry I haven't read the book, "_How to Make Your Prank More Successful_." I'll be sure to get right on that!"

"Is there really a book called that? Cause I would actually read it!"

"I was being sarcastic! Something I_ know_ you're familiar with!" Remus muttered.

"Hey, I'm not-Wait a second! I've got an idea!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Oh no. What is it?"

"You could levitate me up to the level of the windows and I'll spray them! It's genius!"

"NononononononononoNO! I can't levitate you up there! I've never done something that heavy before! I'll drop you! I won't do it!" Remus shook his head furiously.

"Nonsense! I have complete faith in you! Try levitating that suit of armor. If you can do it, and hold it for at least ten seconds, then you can lift me!" Sirius said confidently.

"Fine. Suits of armor from the Middle Ages tended to weigh between 45 to 55 pounds and you can't weigh more than 75, probably less- don't know how you're so skinny since you eat so much, but-,"

"Oh shut up Remie and do it!"

"Fine! Fine!"

Not to Sirius' surprise, Remus had no trouble at all levitating the suit of armor, not even for the whole minute Remus insisted on. Remus begrudgingly agreed to levitate Sirius, much to the latter's satisfaction.

Until- "Can't you hold me still?" Sirius barked.

"No I cannot! My arm is getting tired! Hurry up!" Remus defended.

"I would go faster if I wasn't wobbling up here!"

"If you don't shut up you're not going to have that problem since you will no longer be floating in the sky!"

"Ugh, whatever. Just put me a little bit higher now, c'mon, alright! I'm done!" Sirius announced.

"Finally!" Remus said, dropping his arm. Sirius immediately dropped out of the sky and would've landed with a splat if Remus hadn't realized what he'd done and caught him with the spell.

"Thanks a lot!" Sirius was indignant.

"Not going to say you didn't deserve it!" Remus sing-songed.

"Ummm, Remus?"

"Yeah?"

"How are we going to get back upstairs if all the staircases are now slides?"

"Ugh, I didn't think of that!"

The two boys stared at the main stairwell (which was now a slide) for a good fifteen minutes, as if by looking at it, an idea would come to them. They just sat there until finally-

"Having transportation troubles?" a voice came from the sky. They looked up to see Fabian grinning from a broomstick. "Hop on!"

Sirius and Remus quickly scrambled to the feet and squeezed onto the back of the broom.

"Where's Peter?"

"Once we finished, I flew him back up to the portrait hole, then figured I'd come find you guys. Gideon and I each put our broomsticks into our pockets, which have undetectable extension charms on them."

"Wicked! How'd you think of that?" Sirius asked eagerly.

"A good prankster is always prepared!"

"Duly noted."

******1*******

James and Gideon crept down to the entrance to the Slytherin dormitories.

"Alright. What's the plan?" James asked.

"I was feeling inspired by your brilliant idea on the train when you permanently stuck those Slytherins' robes to the seats. Now, I was thinking we could cast the permanent sticking charm on the floor here outside the common room entrance so that when they step out, their feet will immediately be stuck!" Gideon explained.

"I like it! We should put slippery charms on the walls and ceiling so that way they can't grab onto anything!"

"Perfect! I can't wait to see them try to get to breakfast in the morning!" Gideon laughed.

"The fat gits won't be able to bear it! Skipping a meal! The horror!"

The two boys got to work casting their spells. They had to be careful where they stepped, or they would lose a shoe and risk getting caught. Once they were done, James realized the dilemma they faced of getting back.

"Think we'll be stuck down here with the unpleasant gits in the morning, do ya? Think again!" Gideon whipped out a broomstick from one of his magically enlarged pockets.

"Wicked! Can I fly it?" James asked.

"By all means, go ahead!" Gideon hopped on the back. They soared through the castle, admiring in the dim light their fellow Gryffindor's work. The gallery area looked almost comical, with slides and foam pits filling the space. The windows were dark, and the only light came from the flickers of torches down the hallways leading off.

"This is going to be the best prank of the year!"

And it was. The next morning the castle was filled with confusion and mayhem. Students, and teachers, heading to breakfast were caught sliding into each other and landing in soft piles that swallowed them up. The dark made it hard to see what was going on, and many students had their wands lit, but what it showed them only confused them more.

The six Gryffindors watched the chaos from a 7th floor vantage point. They had stopped by the kitchens to create a large picnic breakfast before flying up there. The best part was the shouts coming from the hallway that led to the dungeons, and the Slytherin common room.

Suddenly a huge ball of light filled the main entranceway, lighting up the now-slides. Professor McGonagall's stern voice filled the air.

"Attention students! Please remain calm! It appears a few of your classmates thought it would be funny to turn the stairs into slides. I'm sure they will find it even funnier serving detention when they clean it all up!" The boys looked to each other and groaned.

"If you all would please ride the slides down to the bottom level and come to the Great Hall for breakfast, that would be appreciated. Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, if your prefects would transform the staircases outside your dormitories back to their proper forms, you may join us."

When the four laughing boys entered the Great Hall, to keep up appearances, they were pleased to note that the Slytherin House was absent. They did not arrive for almost another hour when the teachers had gone to investigate. When they did arrive, much to everyone's enjoyment, most of them were shoeless.

The Marauders were sure not to hide their grins at a very grumpy Severus Snape, or their comments about his mismatched socks.

"I'm sure you would understand my reasoning when I say, 'You six will spend your free periods and free time until curfew today assisting Mr. Pringle in righting our castle to the way it was.' In return of your good Samaritan help, I see no reason of punishing the culprits of what transpired today. Does that sound fair?"

The Marauders and the twins looked over to see Professor Dumbledore smiling at them, a twinkle in his eye.

"We would be happy to assist!" They nodded fervently.

"How kind of you!" The headmaster exclaimed before walking away.

"Man did we get lucky! No detentions or anything!" James exclaimed.

"We still have to clean," Peter pointed out.

"It'll be easy!"

It was a little less than easy to right the 142 staircases, clean the windows, and dispose of the foam blocks. It took some slight spell work, a several bottles of Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Mess Remover, and a few trash bags with undetectable extension charms on them. Needless to say, the boys were sweating to clean it all up!

"At least we don't have to do anything about the Slytherin hallway!"

It was true. Professor McGonagall had to counter the spells outside the Slytherin dormitory so they were off the hook. In the end, they couldn't believe what a success their prank was- it canceled the morning classes and gained them popularity from the entire (minus the Slytherins) student body. Plus they didn't even get punished-severely.


	12. Of Tutors and Fistfights

While James was excited for the Easter holidays, he knew it meant exams were just around the corner. Of course, even if he didn't have a calendar, Remus would have kept him well informed. He had started studying in early March, and every night since then he had been nagging his classmates to do the same. Even now, on this Friday night in early April, Remus had a charms textbook out, writing notes.

"He really is Loony Lupin," Sirius commented, coming up behind James. Some of the Slytherins had created the nickname for Remus when they saw him studying in the library on a Saturday afternoon. The other Marauders were quick to defend Remus when someone dared to call him that in the hallway, but secretly they agreed that Remus_ was _slightly insane.

"Maybe you should take a leaf out of his book!" Lily suggested as she walked by.

"Nah! Why study when you have a natural talent?" James winked.

"Well, we'll see about that when you get a Troll on all of your exams!"

"Nonsense! I'll pass with flying colors!" James laughed. "If I do, will you go on a date with me, Evans?"

"Ew! Merlin no!" Lily exclaimed. "I'd rather_ date_ a troll!" She huffed as she stormed away.

"Bad luck mate!" Sirius laughed at James' open-mouthed expression. "You should close your mouth; you could catch Billywigs in there!"

"Or you could have suggested for her to tutor you!" Remus proposed.

"REMMY! You're a genius! Why didn't you tell me to do that before?" James practically shouted.

"I haven't taken Divination yet, I can't see the future!"

"What's Divina- nevermind that! Maybe I can go find Lily and ask her if she wants to tutor me!" James exclaimed excitedly. He raced off calling out, "EVANS! Oi, Evans!"

Sirius and Remus collapsed laughing just as Peter came down from the dormitory.

"What's so funny?"

"James-,"

"He was-,"

"And Lily-,"

They got out between their laughs, before giving into their laughter.

********1********

"Well well well," came a voice from the shadows. "If it isn't the weak link in the infamous Marauders!"

Peter squeaked. He had stayed after in Potions at the request of Professor Slughorn- for he was in danger of failing the exams, but his friends had gone ahead.

"Who- whos there?" He asked with a shaky voice, drawing his wand.

"Aw, you can just put that away; we both know you really don't know how to use it!" The voice belonged to none other than Snape, who was flanked by his two overlarge cronies- Mucliber and Avery.

"I do too!" Peter protested.

"Then go ahead, hex me!" He opened his arms out wide. "Take your best shot."

Peter's arm shook as he held his wand out, so much that it clattered to the ground before he could say anything.

"That's right. You're nothing. Why are you even a part of their little group? What have you done to earn your place? They are top of the class, you're failing. Everyone would kill to just walk with them in the hallway, but don't give you a second glance. Even_ they_ don't give you a second glance!" Snape sneered. He could see he was getting to the trembling Gryffindor, and reveled in it.

"Ye-yes they do!" Peter stammered out.

"Oh really? Are they here now?"

"YES!" chorused three angry voices, as fists flew out to hit each of the Slytherins right in the jaw.

Peter glanced up to see James, Sirius, and Remus' fists connect with the bullies.

Wands were forgotten as it turned into a full on fistfight. Avery quickly threw his fist at Remus, who deflected it and sent a kick to his abdomen. Avery grunted as the wind was knocked out of him, but quickly swung his fists once again at the dodging Remus. Mulciber punched Peter, knocking him to the ground. He leaned over the boy on the ground, ready to kick him in the face, when Sirius stuck his foot out, tripping the overweight Slytherin. Muliciber rolled over Peter, who was squashed in the process, and struggled to get up from the ground. Sirius quickly punched him in the nose, knocking him out cold then went to go help Remus.

Meanwhile, Snape and James were circling each other. Neither of them talked, instead they simply taunted each other with their eyes. Suddenly James faked a punch with his left hand- which Snape easily dodged, and swung a right hook straight into Snape's jaw. Snape spun and elbowed James in the chest, which gave him the chance to trip Snape to the ground. As James loomed over him, Snape kicked his feet out, knocking them out from underneath James. The two boys rolled on the ground, swinging fists, until finally- with one last elbow to the face, Snape fell unconscious.

James straightened up and surveyed the area around him. Avery was muttering to himself on the ground- clearly out of it. Mulciber was propped against the wall with bruises starting to form on his face. And Snape was lying at James' feet, something he could not be happier about.

However, the four Marauders didn't get off unscathed. Sirius' nose was clearly broken and bleeding. Peter had a lump on the side of his head and Remus was had a cut across one of his cheeks that was freely bleeding. When James smiled at them, his lip split, adding to the blood already in his mouth.

"I think this calls for a celebration!" he declared.

"Shouldn't we go to the infirm first?"

"We can't do that, or they'll know we did this!" Sirius protested.

"We could always get ice from the kitchens and clean ourselves off in the sink there!" Remus suggested.

"PERFECT! We can get snacks too!" James exclaimed.

"Uh guys? What about my nose?" Sirius asked.

"I could try to mend it," Remus offered.

"While I know you're good and all, I don't know if having a first year fix my nose is that great of an idea…"

"We'll think of something over food!"

On their way to the kitchens, they stopped at the bathroom to wash the blood off.

"Man, we look terrible!"

"But think of Snivelly's face the next time we see him!"

They roared with laughter for the rest of their journey to the kitchens. Once they had given their orders to the house elves and sat down, Peter spoke up.

"Thanks for helping me out guys,"

"It's nothing. We're the Marauders- closer than brothers!" Sirius declared.

"But Snape said-,"

"Forget what he said! You're just as important to this group as anyone of us! Let him be jealous, but don't let him get to you!" Remus stated.

"You're ¼ of the Maruaders. Don't forget that," James affirmed.

"Thanks guys! He's just-,"

Just then the portrait to the kitchens burst open and none other than the Prewett twins entered.

"Look! It's our good friends The Marauders!" They exclaimed, pulling up two chairs.

"What happened to your face, kid?"

"Fistfight," Sirius stated.

"Brilliant!" Fabian and Gideon exclaimed together. "I can fix that for you," Gideon added.

"You can? That'd be great!"

"Sure!" he pulled out his wand. "_Episky_!"

Sirius' grunted as his nose realigned itself. "Wow!" he exclaimed, touching it.

"We've been in our fair share of fights. Plus it's not too hard to fix them. So what happened?"

The six boys spent the rest of their free time before dinner recounting what had happened earlier in the Potions corridor.

**Sorry about the late update! I completely rewrote this chapter since I didn't like it originally. There will probably be only one more chapter of this year, but I plan for a lot to happen in it! I'm not sure when I'll upload it, I'm not here much in July-but I'll try to get it up as soon as possible!**

**Thanks to all my great readers! Please review **

**-Pixie97**


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